


Piper Boy & Dreaming Child

by Verchiel



Category: Dark Angel, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Supernatural, Torchwood
Genre: Adam Milligan mentioned, Alternate Season/Series 11, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angel Castiel, Angels, Archangel Gabriel (Supernatural), Aromantic Dean, Biromantic Original Female Character, Caring John Winchester, Castiel and Dean Winchester are Claire Novak's Parents, Castiel in the Bunker, Castiel/Dean Winchester in the Bunker, Child Abuse, Children, Claire Ships It, College, Demons, Depression, Dogs, Domestic Castiel/Dean Winchester, Domestic Dean Winchester, Dysfunctional Family, F/M, Family Drama, Gabriel Lives, Gen, Good John Winchester, High School, Implied/Referenced Suicide, John Winchester is alive, John Winchester is okay with LGBTQ community, Lawyer Sam Winchester, M/M, Monsters, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Original Character(s), Parent John Winchester, Protective Castiel, Protective Dean Winchester, Protective John Winchester, Protective Sam Winchester, Protective Siblings, Protective Winchesters, Siblings, Surrogate family, Swearing, The Winchester Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-19
Updated: 2016-02-21
Packaged: 2018-04-15 13:36:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 33,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4608765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Verchiel/pseuds/Verchiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This story begins with a young Dean first witnessing family abuse, and develops through with John finding the young girl who's a victim of that same abusive family. Watch as a young girl discovers the true meaning of family and how Team Free Will will raise the odd yet lovable girl as a part of the family.</p><p>UPDATE: A bit of a crossover is happening here and there in the story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Strange Coincidence

**Author's Note:**

> More tags will come in the future if I feel like I'm forgetting to add details in the tags.
> 
> I will warn you guys that this is my first time writing Supernatural fanfiction.  
> Please do be kind to me. :)  
> Feel free to add kudos, comments, or even silently read while bookmarking this story. ;) (I do that, too.)
> 
> Disclaimer: There will be VERY FEW parts of this story are from my personal life, current and past events. They most likely will be from Nikita's side story, though these details are not accurate. I altered them for the fic.
> 
> I will also like to point out that I am currently 22 years old, so I am not currently child abused. This is an entirely fictional story (Especially since I'm mixing it with the Supernatural plot). 
> 
> This story takes place during Season 11 (I make my own Season plot with the Darkness). I don't own anything Supernatural (well from the show). I only own the related products that I bought from their merchandise. 
> 
> Enjoy. :)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean meets a child he wishes to save, then many years later he and his brother manage to stumble upon the same child. Can they save her?

At age 17, Dean Winchester knew responsibilities.

Contrary to popular belief, his father taught him great moral values (despite wanting revenge for the death of his wife).

So he was very torn with what he was hearing from next door in the vacation hotel at a saddle ranch.

At the moment, he had to babysit his 13 year old brother Sammy in the hotel room while his father went to investigate a newly built house about two miles from the hotel. It turns out that the workers and the owner of the house decided that the house should be built on sacred ground. That part of the ground was only sacred because of an Indian burial. Needless to say the elderly Indian spirit was not at peace when this happened. His remains were tossed somewhere in a rubble further away from the house, so John Winchester had his work cut out for him.

Dean didn't like the heat and Sam hated that he had to leave his previous school. But, they both had to admit that the past two days were filled with content fun of riding horses and having an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Dean glanced at his surroundings and sighed. His father assumed that the saddle ranch resort had a decent hotel and paid for his sons to have a fun vacation while he hunted an honored spirit.

Sure, the ponies were fun for Sam & Dean, but the elder son preferred to live in a hotel that didn't look and feel like a **motel**.

Dean glanced at the time on his watch. It said 2:04AM.

He glanced over at Sam, who stared at the wall with worry. The younger Winchester sleepily turned to his brother while laying on his bed. "Dean, do you think the ghost managed to find us or hurt the next door neighbors?"

He shook his head in reply. "It's none of our business. Just go back to sleep, Sammy." 

Sam nodded and yawned, drifting off back to sleep. _The kid has heard louder noises in actual motel rooms_ , Dean thought to himself. His eyebrows furrowed in thought. _Although they're really noisy, they seem to be not as noisy when arguing... as if they're trying to low down the volume... why would they care about their relationship arguments being heard?_

Curious, Dean got up from his own bed and moved towards the wall slowly. He leaned in and lightly pressed his ear against the icky yellow wallpaper.

"I'M A GROWN ASS ADULT! WHY CAN'T I GO OUT WITH MY FRIENDS?! THEY'RE HERE AT THE RANCH!"

"YOU WILL NOT GO OUT WITH MORRIGAN ANYMORE!"

"WHY NOT?! THIS IS RACISM! IT'S BECAUSE SHE'S NOT ASIAN!"

Dean's eyes widened at the sudden sound of objects crashing on a wall, like a small crate of...

"DAD, NO! PLEASE DON'T HURT ME! WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU GET A BOX OF CHRISTMAS LIGHTS?!" 

_Those were Christmas lights?_ Dean listened for more, because he could have sworn hearing an elderly woman's voice argue with an elderly man's voice. Soon enough, he heard the woman's voice, but she sounded... worse... than being possessed...

"I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!"

Yep, she sounded drugged...

"MOM, NO! WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT?! PUT THE KNIFE AWAY!"

"Sweetie?" The man finally lowered his tone. "Please put down the knife..."

"NO! I WILL KILL YOU FOR DISTURBING MY SLEEP, BOTH OF YOU! I. AM. SICK!"

He moved to grab the doorknob of his room, but then he heard a frail soft voice echo through the walls.

"Mommy, stop it!"

There were several noises of struggle and sobbing from the voice he heard before, which he could now distinguish as a teenager.

"WHY CAN'T YOU LET ME LIVE?! I'M OLD ENOUGH TO FOLLOW MY OWN RULES! LISTEN TO ME AND TALK TO ME LIKE AN ADULT!"

There were more shouts to follow, which were now inaudible, then it decreased. Dean realized now he was listening in on family drama and slowly stepped away from the wall and the door. 

The mother took too much medicine, since she's apparently ill, and resulted in a drugged state. She went ballistic for a moment with a knife and threatened her supposed husband and teenage daughter. The teenage daughter was being a bit of a brat, considering what time it is and how she mentioned she wanted to hang out with her friend or friends still... who was the one with a soft voice?

"Nikita, go throw the knife away. Hopefully CPS isn't around - last time I checked they were having a drink with the owner in the main cafeteria of the ranch resort," the father ordered someone and grumbled near the wall, where Dean could hear the words "How the hell is there a knife hidden in this place?"

When he heard the door open and close, Dean decided to peek out the window, without breaking the salt lines, to watch who the soft spoken voice was. His eyes widened in shock at a (thankfully unscarred) young girl who looked to be about 4 years old holding the (thankfully clean) knife carefully with a napkin and climbing down the stairs to throw the knife away in the trashcan. Dean also noticed how the little girl's clothing was more second-handed than his own and Sammy's clothes. Her clothes looked too loose on her body and were slightly torn at the seams.

She walked back to her hotel room with her family, and Dean slowly made sure the salt lines were still intact before moving back to his bed near the door.

He wanted so badly to report to CPS, but he couldn't.

He has nearly a year to go before he turns 18 - legal adult age.

If he reported to Child Protection Services now, he and Sammy would be torn away from their father and torn from each other in the foster care system.

He still had an obligation to protect Sammy.

He still loves his one-track minded father, who is stern and strict most of the time but he has decent intentions.

Dean wants and has to protect his family.

...he still wanted to protect the little girl from her family. He saw the rapidly aging look on her face as if she's already been through puberty except for her older sister. He could never forget her appearance... her black hair, tan skin, crescent moon-shaped eyes of a hazel color, and a small button nose.

* * *

The next day Dean was surprised to find his dad walking back into the hotel room. "Dad? Back so soon?"

John turned to his sons, who were both wide awake and freshly changed into new clothes for the day. "Yeah, I just got the refund for your trip. Sorry to cut the vacation short, but I finished the hunt and got another hunt in Seattle. Somethin' about a facility called Manticore..." He mumbled while helping Dean pack his duffel bag. "It's colder there around this time of year, so you don't have to sprout out freckles here and burn, Dean."

Dean's face brightened at the prospect of staying away from the hot scorching sun of the Californian desert. Sam, on the other hand, sulked.

"Dad, really? We're moving again? We just got here!"

"....did I also mention that we'll be staying there for at least 5 months, so you can stay in school undercover while Dean stays at home?"

Sam perked up at the mention of staying in school for a semester. Dean pouted at the idea of staying cooped up indoors and whined. "Oh come on!"

John raised an eyebrow at Dean as he finished packing Dean's stuff. Sam happily started packing his own duffel bag.

"Son, I also got a warning from Bobby in the call about the next hunt... they said someone appeared to look like a younger version of you running around, so I don't want to risk you getting caught by the police out of nowhere. I'll stay with you guys this time while hunting so I can keep feeding you while teaching you the basic school education stuff."

Sam cheered after hearing those words from his father. "I can be my own person for a whole semester in school! I won't have to be known as Dean's lame brother!" He cried out as he finished packing and ran out the door.

John chuckled and moved to follow Sam to the 1967 Chevrolet Impala, which was unlocked at the moment because he knew his son's eagerness for school, but was stopped by Dean. "Oh, dude, what's wrong?" He asked him.

Dean bit his lip and glanced at the wall, which went noticed by his father. "Late last night I heard a specific argument... adolescents were involved and I wanted to call their parents out on the CPS, but... Dad, I didn't want CPS to find us, too..." He trailed off and looked down sadly.

The eldest Winchester put the pieces together of his son's trails of thought and nodded in understanding. "Was it next door?" He pointed at the wall Dean was staring at moments ago. "I could play the inspection route for termites and see if they're still there or if the children got hurt. How many were there?"

"I figured there were two females, sir." He then proceeded to tell his father his witness statement of what happened.

John nodded and patted his back. "Go check on Sam while I go check out what's going on, okay?"

Dean sighed in relief and nodded, walking out the door with his duffel bag to the Impala. John took a deep breath and walked next door to knock. He waited for a moment before listening closely to the door. He waited again for a moment and then decided to break into the room with his toolkit. 

He entered the room slowly after unlocking it with his tools and checked the area. It appeared as though the family checked out, but John could see where Dean heard the struggles of a possible physical argument between family on the wall near the corner of a bed.

_A child was backed into a corner of her bed... she must have suffered abuse from her parents..._ John thought to himself with a devastating hypothesis that most likely may have been true.

Later when he arrived at his car, he noticed Dean staring at the hotel door next to their previous door with a sad gaze in the passenger seat. Sam, on the other hand, already started studying in the backseat of the car. John chuckled and shook his head at Sam's antics, causing Dean to get distracted and notice Sam's nerdy hobby. Slowly the family soon forgot the family drama and moved on.

* * *

_**In 2005...**  
_

"Dean."

"Yeah?"

"I fucked up."

Dean sighed and glanced at Sam while driving the Impala. "Sammy, I told you not to blame yourself for what happened to Jess."

"...it's not just Jess."

Dean slammed his foot on the breaks.

"Jesus Christ, Dean! What the fuck?!" Sam gasped in surprise as he adjusted his seat belt.

The eldest brother turned to him with a glint in his eye as he glared at him. "We already discussed this - no chic flicks! I know I wasn't the ideal brother you grew up with, but you didn't have to shut me out when you went to Stanford - "

"Dean! I don't mean that!"

"Then what the hell do you mean?!"

"I mean that I... I lied to Jess about getting an interview for Stanford law."

Dean stopped yelling after that and stared at Sam in confusion. "Didn't you study to be a lawyer?"

"Yeah, but... the practice that I applied to interview for was to be a lawyer available for Child Protection Services. It was a new position offered and I didn't want to pass it up."

His elder brother stared at him in surprise. "Isn't that weird? After our childhood?"

Sam sighed and leaned against the seat. "I know, but recently I helped Jess out at the pediatric ward for charity week at Stanford... it was in September. There was a 13 year old girl who had a broken left arm and bruises on her face and arms. I hid at the front door of her room because her parents were standing at the foot of the bed, hissing threats at her and blaming her for her older sister's coma state. I checked up her records and her sister is 22 in the floor above the pediatric floor of the hospital. She was in a coma due to alcohol poisoning and a car crash, which should have killed her. It didn't because she was in the passenger seat."

Dean's eyes widened. "So the 13 year old drove? And her parents were pissed at _her_ for saving her sister's _life_?!"

Sam sadly nodded. "When her parents left to see their eldest daughter, I went to talk with her. Her name's Nikita Yuson and I could tell her family has been abusing both her and her sister, though she told me her sister was like that sometimes, too. I wanted... I wanted to be _her_ lawyer and call CPS for her, you know? I would have taken her in and Jess would have loved her..."

Dean contemplated on the information for a moment before nodding and turned to his younger brother. "So what does she look like? Is she still in California? I know we're on the other side of the country, but I can always give Dad a call so he could check it out." Sam scoffed when their father was mentioned. Dean frowned. "Hey, he cares, too! There was this one time when I was 17 and you were 13 yourself, and Dad took us to a saddle ranch resort where I witnessed by ear of bad parenting. I told Dad all about it and he went his way to check it out before we left, remember?"

Sam hesitantly nodded at the small memory. "I didn't think he'd do that for anyone."

"Well, the man does care about us and children, Sammy. He just has a hard way of showing it." Dean shook his head and sighed. "Anyway, I remember the girl being 4 years old and having tan skin, hazel eyes - her eyes were shaped like crescent moons, a button nose, and long black hair. I think she had a teenage sister and elderly-like parents, from the way the voices were like."

"...Asian descent, jet black hair?"

Dean contemplated more and nodded in agreement. "I guess she really was Asian."

Sam quickly whipped out his phone and went through his gallery photos. "I know chances of this are 1 in a million, but is this her?" He asked in wonder as he showed his brother his phone. The picture consisted of Sam smiling happily beside the same description of a girl Dean made, except she grew more in her early preteen stage but was still pretty small. In comparison to Sam's puppy smile, she only had a weak small one for the camera. Her face had a few bruises and she also had a cast for her left arm.

"...this is her."

"Are you sure, Dean?"

"Yeah, I'm sure! I can't forget this face - shit, I'll call Dad about this. Hopefully he can help her in between hunts."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I snuck in a little tiny crossover of Dark Angel. Maybe or maybe not - I could possibly sneak it in again in a future chapter somewhere, if it fits.


	2. Gaining Trust From a Stranger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Dean's voicemail, John calls back quickly and confirms that he'll help what he can. He drives over to California since he's close by and finds Nikita in the hospital still near Stanford. They slowly bond over the little things and Nikita is oddly unfazed by the possibility of real creatures existing. From there John teaches Nikita the scholarly way of detecting mythical creatures.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Castiel and Gabriel will be joining in the story soon, and I swear to God I'll make John look like a decent father.  
> Meanwhile please do enjoy this chapter. I hope the story flow sorta makes sense. I'm about to make it weirder in the next chapter. :p  
> This chapter is more John-centric. Enjoy. :)
> 
> P.S.: The setting is still in 2005.

John ended the call for his voicemail.

He took a deep breath and slowly let it out in a sigh.

With hesitance, he pressed speed dial #2 and waited for his elder son to pick up. He only had to wait for two rings.

"Dad? Did you get my message?"

"Yeah, I hear ya... so Sammy found the little girl out, eh?" There was grumbling noises in the background. "Is that Sam? Am I on speakerphone?"

"Yes, sir. So are you going to look for Nikita - I mean, if you have the time because Mom's killer is still out here somewhere - "

John chuckled and interrupted him before he could continue. "Son, from what you've told me about her, I'll be sure to check on her right away. I'm only a state away from California, so I'll be able to get to the hospital near Stanford tonight. From there, I'll check if this Nikita Yuson is still checked in the hospital. If she's not, I'll be able to find her with her name anyway, and it looks like she resides in California so it'll be easier to track her family than your mother's killer."

He heard more grumbling from his youngest son.

"I hear ya, big guy. I hope you're doing alright, Sammy." He called out to him and spoke softer on the phone. "Dean, I'll be sure to check it out and make sure she's safe, okay? I'll do the best I can."

It seemed to satisfy Dean because he grunted in approval and spoke a soft farewell with Sam's grumbling in the background. John muttered his own goodbyes before hanging up. He shook his head. _Why can't Sammy just see I am trying to do my best to get rid of all the evil that happened to our family?_ He thought to himself, then shrugged as he started up his black truck's engine, driving off towards the freeway to California.

* * *

"What do you mean Ms. Yuson was checked out, but recently had to check back in - and by herself, no less?!" John barked at the doctor while dressed in a nice decent suit.

The doctor sighed and gestured to lower his voice. "You'll wake the other children in the pediatric ward, Agent Morgan. I'm just glad Nikita has someone who's actually watching for her now. It used to be only a student training to be a nurse - I think her name was Jessica Moore - with her caring boyfriend who's studying to be a lawyer. I think his name was Sam Winchester?" He shook his head. "Either way, it was tragic of what happened with Jessica. I was about to hire her as my medical assistant at the Child Protection Services in Palo Alto. Her boyfriend, Sam, was going to surprise her on her first day of work by working as a lawyer in one of their offices, too."

John, who was pretending to be an FBI agent named Jeffrey Morgan, looked genuinely shocked. "Sammy as a lawyer? For Child Protection Services?"

The doctor looked confused. "Do you know Sam Winchester?"

The father caught on and quickly replied, "Not much, but I was one of the detectives who had to question him the day after the fire incident happened." The doctor thought it was a good excuse and nodded, going on with his story on Nikita.

"Believe it or not, this young girl was the one who inspired Sam with his decision to get a job interview for CPS as a lawyer. They recently added a new position available to help the foster children more with their cases, along with the position I wanted to add for Jessica. I happen to work the CPS on the weekends with my husband - he's the one who's in charge of the CPS building in Palo Alto."

John nodded on, wanting to change the subject quickly. He couldn't help but feel a tug in his heart after hearing a bit of Sam's life before the fire. He'll get the son of a bitch for killing their women soon. "So, Doc, what about Ms. Yuson's admittance in the hospital? What is her recent injury this time?"

The doctor sighed and glanced at one of the open doors where Nikita resides in. "Heat stroke. From my records and blood samples, this was not the first time she got heat stroke, either."

John's eyes widened. "A heat stroke? Where are her parents? Relatives?"

"From what was I heard of her last admittance to this ward, Nikita's parents persuaded the staff to ignore medical treatment other than needing the left arm to be treated. I overheard the other nurses gossiping that her mother talked about buying more concealer makeup to get rid of the bruises so they could heal."

He gaped at the doctor. Was this woman for real?

The doctor continued on with a grimace on his facial features. "The nurses kept bringing food for the patient, which angered the mother because she thought that Nikita needed to be taught a lesson. Instead, she sent the food that was supposed to be for her to her older sister, Mary Anne, who's currently in a coma and was transported to the medical facility in Los Angeles... apparently we weren't good enough to treat their precious daughter." Now John could understand why the doctor could be holding a grudge against the Yuson family. "Nikita's father was able to sneak in the food that was for her, but it's usually just the soup and crackers. The rest of the food was kept to him and his wife in Mary Anne's room."

"...that's horrible... how could they do that to a young child?"

The doctor shook his head. "That's not the worse part. The child received a heat stroke due from her job as a transporter for packages. It's technically not really a job, since she won't be earning money. I recently found out from a couple of cops who came here yesterday to interview her that the parents paid for Mary Anne's hospital bills first before Nikita's. Because the family doesn't have enough money, they made Nikita find a job in town as the family left with Mary Anne to Los Angeles for more medical treatment. She fainted in front of her boss after three hours of driving in this heat with traffic. Luckily the police were nearby when she fainted."

John's eyes widened as he glanced at the sources of light from the windows at the pediatric ward of the hospital. "But it's gotta be over 100 degrees outside! It's hot all over California!" He shouted in shock. "Plus the damn girl is underage to drive! How was she able to get the damn job?!"

"That's what I told the cops," The doctor sighed. "That's also why they arrested the person who hired her. He's in questioning now at the precinct, but sadly they have no proof that she was a victim of child abuse, so they just let her off and left yesterday."

John grunted in disapproval and glanced at where Nikita's door is once more. "I think after she's healed I'll be able to check her out myself and lead her to CPS so they can help her." _Yeah, fat chance of that happening. Her parents might try to come for her. I don't know what to do - what should I do?_

The doctor nodded and let John walk over to her room as he left to attend to other patient's care. He slowly walked inside the room and stared at the young girl, who his eldest son saw many years ago, lying in a bed looking sickly pale and red at the same time with her tan skin. Her lips were chapped and more pale than the rest of her body.

 "Nikita Yuson?"

The young 13 year old's head perked up from staring at the pale white walls and pinned her gaze at John silently.

"I'm here to help..." He glanced at the open doorway behind him and slowly moved toward the young girl on her hospital bed. "My eldest son's seen ya before years ago, believe it or not, and recently my youngest son visited you. His name is Sam Winchester?" He whispered the last sentence softly so he wouldn't spook the girl and at the same time not get caught by authorities.

Nikita's eyes widened in shock. When she spoke, it was obvious that her voice was sore. As soon as she could move her hands, John planned to have her write her responses instead so she could heal her voice.

"...he told me his father kicked him out of the house for wanting to go to college..."

John scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Oh, not this again. I'm actually proud of the tall fucker. It's his attitude that's the problem - I understand I raised him too hard in the world, so it may be my fault he's rebellious."

Nikita couldn't help but crack a smile at that, despite her chapped lips starting to bleed. John noticed this and cursed softly, taking out a clean handkerchief from his pocket and pressing it damply against her lips. "Do you need some water?"

Nikita grunted softly in reply and John couldn't help but chuckle as he looked for a glass of water somewhere. He found a small cup of water that only had a little bit of water. He frowned at the dust collecting around the cup on the table beside the bed. "How long was it since your last cup of water?"

The young girl's face crumpled in dismay and turned away from the cup of water. It was a good enough answer for John.

He growled as he stomped out of the hospital room and glared at all the nurses at the pediatric ward. "Who's the nurse in charge of this patient?!" He barked, pulling his marine instincts to surface.

All the nurses merely glanced at the whiteboard on the wall in reply. John marched over to the wall by the entrance of the pediatric ward and checked for Nikita's name. It was labeled with a red sticker, indicating 'Critical Care', but there was no name of any nurse assigned to her. In fact, Nikita's name on the list was the only one that had a blank space for nurse names. At least the doctor that he previously talked to had his name listed as her assigned doctor with a smiley face next to it.

John's face turned red, and the next thing he knew he blew up.

* * *

"Are you sure about this Agent? I've heard from her mother that the patient is quite a handful."

John slowly turned his murderous glare at the nurse in front of him. She flinched and stepped back. He slowly went back to signing a checkout clipboard. Meanwhile, a male nurse who was usually assigned for the regular adult patients helped the doctor that John previously talked to (and was okay with) fit Nikita into a wheelchair.

"Don't worry, sweetie. Richard here will take care of you," The doctor reassured the young girl in a soft and caring tone. "I hope to see you again someday, just not in these grounds, okay? I'm already in plans of transferring to another hospital nearby." Nikita gave the doctor a small smile while Richard popped out a pink umbrella with a Victoria's Secret design.

John went over to the small group and raised an eyebrow at the umbrella. Richard noticed the look and appeared affronted. "What? I'll have you know pink is a definite manly color! It was Hitler who tried to denounce its masculinity - right, Dr. Harkness?" He faced the doctor with a pout.

Said doctor wrinkled his nose, otherwise looking unfazed. "Although that could be true, I was never much into history in school and had to repeat courses related to history. My husband's the one who loves pink. So much." He flatly stated.

Nikita let out a few soft giggles, causing John to crack a grin on his face. "Alright then, Doc. I'll be seeing ya soon, maybe never. I'll be sure to give you a call if I need it." He waved the medical instructions given by Dr. Harkness earlier. The doctor smiled and waved as he watched the supposed FBI agent and patient leave to a big black truck with Richard, who carried the stupid pink umbrella so that Nikita would have shade.

Richard carried Nikita into the passenger seat once they arrived at the truck and John had opened the door for them. He finally closed the umbrella after closing the wheelchair. "Sorry about the nursing staff," Richard started to say and quickly interrupted John from speaking up. "Let's just say it's these moments that give the reason why men should take nursing positions as well, eh?"

John snorted and nodded. "Tell me bout it. You take care of yourself, ya hear?" He stuck out a hand to shake Richard's and watched him walk away with the folded umbrella and wheelchair.

Later as John drove away Richard and Dr. Harkness watched them leave, then turned to each other.

"Nice cover, _Dick_. It might be a perfect name for you."

"Oh, you would think like that Captain, or should I say _Doctor_? How ironic, really."

Dr. Harkness smirked at the short nurse named Richard. "We promised John that justice will be served with the female nurses at the pediatric ward. Shall we grant his wish?"

Richard grinned and pulled out a lollipop sucker from his pocket, unwrapping the plastic and popped it in his mouth. "Why not?" He shrugged with a cocky grin.

* * *

Once John arrived in Los Angeles, he noticed Nikita fidgeting in her seat beside him. "What's wrong, kiddo? You have to use the restroom?"

She shook her head in reply and bit her chapped lips. That's when it hit him.

"Shit, I didn't think about your parents, hun. My mind was on the hunt that my friend Pastor Jim called about earlier - "

"Hunt?" Nikita chirped up with curiosity. John's eyes widened and he slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand. "Shit! You weren't supposed to know that! Just - nevermind. We're gonna stay at a motel for a few days while I work and we'll be going somewhere away from here."

Nikita frowned and wrinkled her nose, looking down at the cold bottle of water in her hands.

* * *

Nikita silently looked around the motel room after John left to 'hunt'.

_Just what did he mean by that? What was he hunting in Los Angeles?_

She glanced at the wall where John pinned several news articles with strings. She got up slowly from the bed and frowned, not getting the connection, but feeling that there was one.

Using her gut feeling, she hesitantly arranged the strings to where it made sense to her. By the time she was done, she realized based on the time on the radio clock that she had only used 15 minutes to organize the notes on the wall. Her eyes narrowed at a common subject.

"Woman in White..." she mumbled to herself, though it seemed that someone heard her because she heard a throat clear behind her.

She gasped and dashed to the bottom of the bed, quickly crawling underneath the bed to hide.

John looked at her with worry. "Nikita, you know I wouldn't hurt you... I'm not your parents. I can protect you..." He spoke gently to her, but then caught the difference on the wall at the corner of his eye. He stared at the wall while Nikita started shouting please not to hurt her and had apologized for ruining his trail for thought. After hearing that last bit, John quickly shook his head and stared at the bed where Nikita was hiding with incredulous looks. "Nikki... this is better than what I came up with! You found the specific spirit I was hunting!" He laughed lightly and moved over to the bed to lift the bedsheets slowly. "Come on, I'm not mad, Nikki. Come out of there..." He suddenly thought of an idea and grinned down at the young girl slowly emerging from underneath the bed.

"How would you like to help me with research at the library?"

* * *

"So... all these folklore stuff are real?"

John looked up at the question and turned to Nikita, who sat beside him in the library. They both sat in front of the computer looking through old scanned newspaper articles of fires. During the trip to the library John gave a crash course on the supernatural creatures in the world. He was slightly alarmed to find Nikita smiling in response when he asked earlier if she was afraid of him now. This quickly led to him teaching her how to research spirits or other strange occurrences.

"It depends on how they're interpreted," He replied, "Most of the stuff is real, which is why go through research to find the common or original sources."

Nikita nodded and looked down at a book she was reading, which was open on a chapter about different types of demons. She flipped a page and started reading while asking another question. "Why are we looking for another hunt? Shouldn't we deal with the spirit known as the Woman in White?"

John shook his head as he printed out a newspaper article he found relative to his main important case. "I already gave my son coordinates to come over. They'll expect me to be here but I'll be gone. They'll be the ones to solve our case." He pointed at the computer screen. "This is the reason how I got into hunting the supernatural. If you're traveling with me as I take care of you, you gotta learn how to defend and protect my back in return. I know you're young, but I can tell you're a strong fighter." He turned to the 13 year old girl. "So? What do you say? Shall we hunt for the Yellow Eyed Demon together?"

Nikita realized the danger of the situation, and yet she felt more at peace with this man than with her family. She smiled slowly at the elder hunter. "...yes," she uttered softly. "I'll join you."

The man felt pride for the girl and reached out to gently rub her head. She leaned against the touch and purred playfully, causing him to bark out in laughter. He quickly quieted down and snickered along with her when the head librarian of the building marched over to shush and glare at him before returning back to her duties at the front desk.

Later as they were packing up to get out of the library, Nikita glanced down at the book in her hands and saw a picture on the page of a dark entity with Yellow Eyes. "Hey, John?" She called out to him as her eyes scanned down to the label of the picture.

"Yeah?" He responded after finishing packing. He didn't think he was going to take any books except for printed pages, so that was enough for him.

"....I think I got a lead."

John stopped moving and turned towards the young girl. "What kind of lead?"

She looked up at him and showed him the book. "I found a name for the demon you're looking for."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See what I did there? I added Dr. Who/Torchwood character as a tiny crossover. May or may not add a tiny few chapters on either fandom crossover, but I won't tag it as such (as I'm not sure when I'll write it or if I write it) because the story is mainly Supernatural-based.


	3. Erasing Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John &Nikita quickly search for the Yellow Eyed Demon together, now that they have a name. They find out that Sam is the key player in what happened with John's wife, and they hear word about the Colt. Right before they look for the Colt, John secretly attempts to adopt her and promises to God that he will do what it takes to keep her as his own child. Two villains from the future make certain that John would never get off sidetracked of Heaven's destined plan (because otherwise they would never have accomplished so much).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm adding two very special villains from the recent season of Supernatural, along with a tiny fairytale twist. ;)
> 
> Enjoy this chapter! :)

John Winchester drove down the highway in his big black truck while texting coordinates to his sons. Beside him in the passenger seat, Nikita saw what he was doing and quickly cut him off by taking away his cellphone. "Hey!" John yelped and glared at her.

Nikita sighed and finished texting the coordinates before sending the text to [Dean]. She turned to John with a raised eyebrow, looking very bemused. "Are you really going to text and drive at the same time? You need to keep your eyes on the road, sir."

The elderly man looked at her in surprise before shaking his head and chuckling slightly. "When did you get to be such a smartass?" He asked rhetorically.

"Right around the time you saved me." She gave him a cocky grin.

John full out laughed and focused more on the road. "So, what do you have so far on Azazel?"

"So far I managed to find here that he is the first pure demon on Earth and that he wasn't born human, which makes him an actual creature but of the unknown," The young girl read from a thick heavy textbook with a reference label on the spinal edge. Internally John glanced at how small the girl was in comparison to the huge dusty book on her lap. Since the hospital Nikita had been wearing John's old clothes that used to fit him, but they had been too big for her still, so before they left for Los Angeles he bought her cleaner clothes at a thrift store. He had her choose the clothes and was surprised to find the feminine parts of her purchases only being her undergarments. (He still can't think of how she was able to steal that reference book from the library without the cranky old librarian lady catching them.) "It says here in another chapter that Lucifer himself created him."

"You mean the Devil?" John asked, wanting to know all there is about demons.

Nikita nodded and flipped through a few pages until she found where she bookmarked Azazel's name of origin. "But get this," and as she paused reading before starting to read aloud, the elder man couldn't help but flinch at the last time he remembered hearing that similar phrase - about a week before his younger son, Sam, walked out on him and Dean to go to Stanford, "...Azazel is an angel name, and technically a fallen angel because Lucifer himself was the fallen archangel."

John slowly parked at the nearest motel he could find and turned to his young companion. "Angel as in Heaven? There's no such thing as angels, honey."

Nikita frowned and wrinkled her small button-shaped nose, causing John to crack a smile. The girl was just too cute for words - and crap, he's already getting used to the little Asian kid.

"I get the feeling that they exist... I mean, despite the fact that both of us has had crappy lives, I think we... if you and your family haven't noticed me before, I think.... no, I _know_ I wouldn't have survived," Nikita voiced aloud her pensive thoughts as she glanced over at John. "Sometimes I dream of what could have happened if your family wasn't around mine in specific details... it gets really ugly and lonely..." Her voice drifted off to a quiet whisper and she looked down at her feet barely hitting the floor carpeting of the truck.

John gently patted her head and coaxed her gaze to look up at him. "Hey, you listen to me, kid. I still don't trust divine and fate unless I see it in front of me. However, I do believe it is a miracle that I found you, so I'm not looking to put a gift horse in the mouth. You with me `til the end, Nikki?"

Nikita smiled at the sweet nickname and nodded.

"Alright, now let's go hunt this sucker!"

* * *

**_In 2006..._ **

"I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT THIS IS HAPPENING!" John roared as he stormed through the hotel door, kicking it open after Nikita quickly unlocked it with her passkey.

With the current case the two hunters have, it required them to dress up posh style. John was storming around the hotel room in a neat suit jacket with shirt and vest ensemble of different shades of grey, faded moss green skinny pants that end down where his ankles are showing, and brown Oxford shoes. Nikita was dressed in a light pink and white flowery dress with short sleeves and peach cream-colored high heel sandals with a flower design on top. John's hair was slicked to style to the right while Nikita's had been put together in a messy-yet-stylishly-cute bun (thanks to lack of John Winchester's skills from when he tied up his late wife's hair when she was pregnant with Dean).

With the uncomfortable way they dressed, it was not what John was angry at.

"HOW COULD AZAZEL DO THAT TO MY CHILD?!" He continued to yell as he smashed a porcelain vase against a wall.

A sharp gasp filled the hotel room after a moment of cold silence.

John's eyes widened and his body turned quickly to where Nikita stood, and he wasn't surprised she was no longer standing there.

"Nikki! I'm so sorry, baby!" He called out softly with a couple of nicknames. Over the past few months since he saw his sons meet the little girl for a brief moment, he knew what he wanted. He wanted to adopt Nikita.

He told his sons about the idea to do it secretly as a surprise, and they were hesitant at first, but they trusted John's judgment enough about how horrible the Yuson family was to her. When Dean mentioned about the now-adult aged older sister, Mary Anne, John shook his head and quietly mentioned how Mary Anne had also hurt Nikita physically, too, when she couldn't take it out on their parents. The Winchesters brothers looked sick as John shared a quick recap of his honest conversation with the child, as said child quietly snored in the backseat of his truck. (It was most likely the first heartfelt, emotional-revealing conversation he's had with anyone close to him since his wife died.) The boys reluctantly agreed with John's decision to adopt, but only if he makes sure she goes first as priority before any hunt, or else they would hunt him down. John knew his sons had a point so he agreed.

Now in the early spring, however, he frantically searched for the young Asian girl in the fancy hotel room. "Nikki! Come on out, darling!" He looked underneath both beds in the room and in the closet.

He was about to check the balcony until he heard a sniffle and a light whimper coming from the bathroom.

He ran in there and froze at Nikita hiding in the large closet that sits across from the dressing table area. She was crouched in a fetal position with her arms covering her legs while her head gets buried in her own embrace.

"Oh, baby, I'm so sorry... I wasn't ever gonna hit ya, honey... I'm just mad at the demon, you know that..." John whispered gently as he crouched slowly towards her and envelop her in a hug. She immediately leaned into the embrace and started to cry - an act that silently shocked John because since she met her he had never seen or heard her cry.

He decided to blame this on Azazel as well. And Lucifer, because he created the damn angel who fell with him.

How dare this yellow-eyed bastard bleed in his son's mouth before killing his wife? Sam now has a screwed up destiny of either dying or gaining demon powers to help Azazel lead an army for Lucifer.

John and Nikita gained this information from the case that had them dressing in posh looks in the first place. There were regular demons in the Hamptons acting like crossroad demons, making deals with greedy young children. When John captured all the demons at a gazebo and made sure they weren't getting out of their meat suits, Nikita had been the one to calmly tell the families and distant relatives at the Hamptons nearby the gazebo that demons do exist and that the children so far who officially made deals had sold their souls permanently, according to the terms in the contracts that the demons made the children sign before sealing the deals with a kiss.

Needless to say, those children's parents were now very upset upon seeing who signed which contract for what clauses.

At that time, John was more focused on one particular demon after he sent the others to Hell. Nikita had been the one to free the victims and helped them with their lack of memory loss. Apparently they were just as displeased with the children who officially made the demon deals for petty greedy things such as a new car, a new girl/boyfriend, more money, inheritance of land, etc.

The demon John had held in captivity sneered at him and boasted about Azazel's plan and didn't care if he was going to be sent to Hell to be dealt with. The demon believed that Azazel will win, with or without Sam's help. John sent him to Hell before stalking away back to the hotel where they originally posed as Ms. Vera Wang's niece, Ning, with her bodyguard, Mr. Alfred Wayne.

A couple of hours after Nikita calmed down, John steered her to one of the beds and let her rest while he stocked up on reading the books stashed in her duffel bag that he bought for her. It was bigger than his and more durable for heavier equipment. He had her use it wisely for sneaking old reference books from the restricted sections of the libraries that they need for hunts. Time to get cracking on how to stop Azazel.

_How do you kill a fallen angel who turned demon?_

* * *

Nikita stared at the open textbook before her.

"You found what could kill Azazel," she spoke in a soft voice. Come to think of it, from John's perspective, the girl has always talked in a soft tone unless she laughs, which was a rare feature for anyone to see, including him.

John finished packing up so they could leave the hotel and glanced at the last thing that needs packing which was what Nikita was currently staring at. "Yep. Samuel Colt created a gun that could kill anything, except for very few species of the supernatural world, but it'll make our lives easier if we get our hands on that Colt. Besides, he's only made a dozen bullets, from what it says there," He explained briefly with an accomplished look on his face.

The young girl nodded and gently closed the book shut. "Maybe... if I could get my hands on a witchcraft book, I could attempt to duplicate the bullets?"

The elderly Winchester perked up at the questionable offer. "That would be splendid! Excellent work, Nikki." He reached over in his duffel bag to pull out a thick leather book with worn out pages. "Which reminds me - happy birthday, kiddo."

Nikita's eyes widened at the sudden present before her. "I...how... oh my God..." She uttered and trailed off.

John shrugged. "I thought of what you just said earlier, like last week earlier, so I'll have to admit that you wanting to learn about witchcraft could be useful in the long run - so long as you don't make demon deals."

"I won't! I promise!" The now 14-year-old girl beamed and jumped off her bed to crush John into a warm hug while shouting by his ear. "Thank you, thank you! This is the best gift that anyone has ever given me! I'll treasure this book as long as I live!"

John smiled back at her and squeezed her in the hug. "I'm countin' on it, darlin'..." He drawled out playfully.

Later on, while he watched his young partner skim and search through the heavy thick worn out book of spells in the backseat, John internally planned how he would bring the conversation of adopting Nikita. For the past few weeks he first quickly found how to kill Azazel, then spent the rest of his time calling up his old army buddies connected to the government (who figured out that monsters are real - he was surprised about learning about Area 51's existence). He was able to play a few strings and pull them toward his favor. If he could get the Yuson family arrested for child abuse and put Nikita's elder sister in a psychiatric ward to help her, then John could easily adopt Nikita legally if he were to work under the government.

He decided that family comes first before revenge.

He'll call his sons up after they park at his reserved cabin under a false name, which was about 2 miles away. They'll be a witness to Nikita's adoption at the local court hall in Salvation, Iowa. Afterwards, they'll deal with Azazel, then they'll finally settle in Windom, Minnesota.

Which opens up a new can of worms... how is John going to explain to his sons that they have a half-brother? He imagines that would not go well, but he'll endure it to save what's left of his family.

* * *

**_The next day in Salvation, Iowa..._ **

"Who are you?"

The middle aged man with a beard grinned leering at Nikita in the middle of the woods. "I'm Metatron, a scribe for God and a powerful angel!" He exclaimed with a crazed look in his eyes.

The young girl raised an eyebrow at him and glanced at what the odd small man was carrying in his arms. It looked like a cement clay tablet with engravings of sorts... yet she felt she would be able to read it. In fact, she thought she saw some recognizable symbols in the corner down the edge... adding the symbols in the column next to it...

She pointed at the tablet. "Why does that say, ' _God placed his grandchild in a home where the babe will learn humility of mankind - if she is destroyed, then the Apocalypse will succeed in favor of the one who kills her_ '?"

Metatron gaped at the young girl before him. "... _you_ can read my writing? But you are not a prophet!"

Nikita blinked and stared at him. "I'm no prophet... I've never written a Bible."

Metatron continued to stare at her with a flabbergasted expression. A red-headed woman rolled her eyes and came out from behind a thick-wood tree. "Metatron, no time to waste! It is obvious that the tablet means it's her we have to kill!"

Nikita's eyes widened at that remark. Her mind drew a blank for a moment, though she could catch on quickly by being quiet.  _The thing on the tablet... I can read it, but John never showed me books about the language... red-head old lady says I'm... what? But... no, that's impossible. The only family I know are..._

_...humility..._

_...if this is true, then God wanted me to learn humility....?_

_All the shit I've been through with those fucking people for 13 years was for that...?_

_...okay, these people lost me. What the fuck is that lady doing?_

She luckily snapped out of her thoughts in time to duck when an eruption of green fire was aimed toward her. She quickly got up and ran away from the crazy people back into the local clearing, where John said he'd surprise her with something as a 2nd part of her birthday gift.

She ran through the door of the cabin they were staying in and she gasped, seeing John unconscious on the kitchen floor. She had no time to check what the thin wrapped envelope was on the dining table and grabbed her witchcraft book of spells.

Nikita quickly ran to her room, crawled through a small tunnel placed in the under side of her closet, and opened the small latched door. With her size, she was able to crawl in and lock the trap door after she entered.

She silently gasped as she heard the red headed woman and bearded man enter the cabin, but luckily she and John earlier prepped her secret room (just in case things happen and she has to hide) with wards so nothing supernatural could detect them. Despite John not believing in angels still, he reluctantly helped paint angel warding sigils just in case.

Now, Nikita felt slightly protected, but it wasn't enough. She wanted John, the only family she's got.

She glanced at the book in her grasp, then at the small bed behind her that was placed there for hiding emergencies.

She only knew one spell and wasn't sure what the downside was yet, but she had to try to make it. Because this certain spell had an upside to her favor.

She can banish the people in the cabin and protect it until John comes back to his senses.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See what I did there? Rowena the witch & Metatron the douche bag angel who is now human!


	4. Breaking Fate's Design

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nikita quickly draws up the spell to protect her and the cabin, causing Rowena and Metatron to forget her and focus on erasing the Winchester family's memories of her with the lack of time they had. After being booted out of the time frame, they reluctantly relish in one small accomplishment and try drawing plans for the present. The Winchesters wake up on reset and live their lives.  
> Fast forward to the present (2015), Gabriel manages to break free of Metatron's grasp when Metatron's grace was removed. He quickly has caught up on the Winchesters issues (damn it not again) because of Metatron and decides to call in reinforcements from Heaven - and the person is NOT who anyone expects.

Nikita quickly grabbed her pocket knife (another gift from John - he claimed earlier that he wanted to make up her past birthdays, even though he didn't even know her back then) and read the instructions from the book of spells. She grumbled and cut her wrists, gasping as the blood quickly poured down her arm. She squeezed her wrists gently on the floor beside the bed.

"Rowena, I can't seem to sense her in the cabin! I think she probably jumped out the window in this room!" She heard the weird short man with a beard call, apparently named Metatron, out to the red headed woman and a floorboard creak nearby. She controlled her breathing intake - she was able to learn that skill early on in her childhood.

She heard the red headed woman speak, apparently Rowena, and evaluated her as an Irish witch. "You wee little man - you're human now! Of course you can't sense her! She's probably hiding somewhere in the cabin. Go find her while I finish up these ingredients here and wipe out this young man's memories with his sons' as well."

Nikita's eyes widened in fear and concern for John and his boys while she quickly drew a rune with her blood on the floor. This would ensure the spell that the cabin should be protected with her in it and no one else.

She heard another floorboard creak closer to her room and she panicked, quickly moving onto the bed while laying the thick book of spells at the foot of the bed. It wouldn't take long for this Metatron guy to find a small handle on the floor inside the closet, where she's currently hiding in.

She overheard Rowena speak again after muttering a few incantations for her spell, indicating that the spell had sadly worked. "In a moment, they will not remember this nephilim and we can go on to kill it, my dear ex-angel." Rowena paused for a moment before stating a remark, drawing Nikita's blood running cold in fear.

"Perhaps we can slightly alter the past events now so that when we go back to our time we can get even more odds in our favor? Like kill the Winchesters for good?"

Nikita scrambled to the floor and drew out another rune that she luckily memorized yesterday. Adding this to the spell would bump any stranger of the spellcaster back to wherever they came from, though it was a long shot of whether the two strangers would bump back to another city location or another year.

As she drew the runes, she kept listening quietly to the conversation happening upstairs. Luckily, the man named Metatron drew back to Rowena but spoke with an exasperated tone in his voice. "That would make things easier for us, though we're in the past now. I'm afraid we really need Dean to be the Righteous Man and Sam to free Lucifer in order to keep the odds we currently have in our favor."

If Nikita was going to cast the spell, she should do it  _now._

She hopped on her spring mattress and muttered the incantation from the book. She chanted out loud, "Texi hic focus contra tota subministratio abominanda cogitati. Exsuscito nam basii municipalis fidelis affectus!"

The runes suddenly glowed blue and blasted a frostful of air, knocking Nikita out on the bed unconscious. The blue frost of air also blasted a startled Rowena and Metatron back out the cabin and disappear into nonexistence, pushing them back in their own timeline. John, on the other hand, crashed out onto the grass outside of the cabin by his truck and woke up. He groggily got up with a groan and glanced at his truck.

"What on Earth...? How did I get here?"

* * *

**_In 2015..._ **

Rowena and Metatron crashed on their backs back into an abandoned wine warehouse in Ireland. They both groaned in unison as they slowly climbed at the numerous wine boxes. 

"Damn, we got distracted - that damn abomination probably used her powers to push us away!" Metatron complained as he kicked at the dirt.

The red-headed witch sighed as she patted herself down to remove the dirt off her dark maroon velvet dress. "That sort of power felt like a spell, but the essence of the power was unrecognizable to me, so I may be wrong," she paused and smiled wickedly at the short man beside her. "...but at least we helped with the timeline to move forward. The place here looks the same."

Metatron stopped complaining and slowly smiled the same way. "You're right! Maybe the brat's power backlashed on her, considering I don't feel her power right now."

Rowena glared at him. "You never had felt her power in the first place BECAUSE YOU ARE HUMAN NOW, YOU WEE LITTLE INGRATE!" She let out a frustrated sigh. "Let's just find a way to read the damn demon tablet you got there, lad."

* * *

**_Back in 2006..._ **

The Winchester brothers woke up in their motel rooms feeling a bit dizzy. They looked at each other with confusion.

"Dean? Did we go out on a bender?"

"...nah, I would have thrown up." Dean yawned and glanced at the electric motel clock. "Hmm...ugh, I'm dizzy as fuck, though. Can we blow this joint? I heard from the news yesterday that there might be flu season coming through this town.

Sam looked very concerned at Dean and nodded. "Okay, maybe that's why we both feel this way. We'll leave as soon as I take a shower. You can go call Dad and see if he could actually pick up."

Dean snorted and shook his head. "Sure, why not?"

Sam shrugged and groggily headed to the bathroom. Dean grabbed his phone and pressed speed dial. He was surprised when his father did pick up. "Dad? Are you okay?"

John had answered his phone while grabbing his stuff from the front lawn of a cabin and putting it in his black truck. "Yeah, Dean, I'm okay. I feel kinda dizzy and I'm starting to remember being here - "

"Wait what?! Dad, Sam and I just woke up and we felt the same way, too."

The elder Winchester's eyes widened as he glanced around the area. "Do you think it could be witches?"

Dean growled as he wiped his eyes from crust. "Dude, I fucking hate witches. I wouldn't be surprised. What are you doing in a cabin? Does it have anything to do with the Yellow Eyed Demon?" He mumbled over the phone.

John smacked his forehead with his palm as he remembered. "Fuck! Of course! I'll text you coordinates - I know how to defeat the demon." Without another word, he hung up the call and glanced once more at the cabin he vaguely remembered being in before hopping into the truck and driving off. At the moment, his mind was focused on the Yellow Eyed Demon.

What he forgot, along with what his sons forgot, were a few research books about the Yellow Eyed Demon, a large envelope containing signed forms of the Yuson family giving their guardianship over to John Winchester, and a young girl trapped in her own spell.

* * *

_**In 2015...** _

A few weeks ago, Gabriel found a breakthrough in his own personal cage designed by Metatron and tried breaking through the thick paper door, but it seemed to have thick layers. He looked around his mirage of a cage and growled, pushing forward with all six of his wings. After the 124th push with his shoulder, he finally fell through the mirage and back into what used to be Metatron's office.

Instead it had changed into a clean office with the theme that somehow fit God's look. (If only the other angels knew who God decided to take as a vessel... Gabriel was the only one to know where God was before he got captured by fucking Metatron.)

In the comfy white lounge chair sat a male human vessel, but Gabriel could read the light on the vessel's grace. His eyes widened in surprise. "Hannah...? What are you...? Please tell me Metatron's gone!" He shouted and scrambled towards her.

Hannah, using a human man as a vessel, was shocked to see Gabriel pummel through the bookshelf as if it was paper. "So that's where Metatron trapped you! Castiel told me before about seeing you, but he thought it was just a mirage!" She let out a yelp as the archangel glomped her in a hug.

Gabriel grimaced at the thought. "Speaking of mirage, that's why I broke out of my cage... did you guys kill Metatron? His grace was the only thing holding me in my cage."

Hannah's eyes slowly widened. "Oh no."

The archangel stared at her/him (he's quickly deciding on him) with a deadpan look. "...let me guess, Winchesters and Castiel? Yeah, Team Free Will must have struck again."

* * *

**_In the Bunker of "Men of Letters"..._ **

"WHAT THE FUCK?!"

Dean yelled after just arriving at the Bunker with Sam, Castiel, and a still-in-healing Crowley. Sam reluctantly hooked Crowley up with a box supply of human blood from the hospital, which was where they had Crowley kept in for a while, luckily without his demon allies knowing. Castiel made sure he was between Sam and Crowley because from what the King of Hell mentioned back at the hospital, Sam tried to kill Crowley for Rowena's help and ended up scrapping out most of whatever feelings Crowley had left for humanity. The taller Winchester knew he was very lucky that Crowley still considered Dean as his best friend when the elder Winchester brother had been the one to admit Crowley into the hospital for human treatment. As it turns out, Crowley's mother, Rowena, was not to be trusted - typical of a witch. What was worse was that she tried to kill her own son by somehow sneaking up a spell in his recent clothes to give him human conditions, then synched Castiel on him using another powerful spell from the Book of the Damned.

Now the mission for all four of them is to kill Rowena.

Upon arriving inside the Bunker, the four were very shocked to find Gabriel eating a lot of chocolate cake, looking anxious and depressed.

But beside him, Dean and Sam were very shocked to find John Winchester, their father, reading through a few files from the Bunker and analyzing it with the world map table.

Upon hearing Dean shout just now, Gabriel stopped eating and looked up with a shimmer of hope and dread. John dropped what he was doing and looked up, saw his sons, and smiled widely with sudden tears in his eyes. "My boys...!" He ran faster than Gabriel, who toppled over the table and tripped with one of his cakes, and ran up the stairs. He stopped just in front of Dean, who quickly pulled a gun on him. John smiled sadly and quickly pulled a silver knife out to cut the side of his arm to show he wasn't a shapeshifter, and then he pulled out a bottle that labeled Holy Water and drank from it, then splashed it on his eldest son.

Crowley saw the liquid and clung onto Castiel, who long ago was no longer under a dog attack spell for Crowley's head. "I would very much like an alcoholic beverage and not water, thank you very much."

Castiel and John glanced at him with raised eyebrows, and the angel was the one to point out, "Crowley, you have human feelings now due to your mother's spell, so holy water will not affect you as much as a regular demon. It would feel as if you drank a strong alcoholic beverage that you were not supposed to drink due to heart burns."

John frowned deeply. "You're a demon?" He asked Crowley.

Sam shook his head. "Wait a minute! We have a bigger issue here - what are you doing here, Dad?! You're supposed to be in Heaven with Mom!" He shouted indignantly.

Dean glared at Gabriel, who took his time to saunter up the stairs. "Sammy, we have a bigger problem than Dad being here - the possible reason of  _how_ he's here!" He waved his arm over at Gabriel. "What the fuck is our Dad doing here, Gabriel?! And I thought you died!"

Gabriel shrugged and jutted his chin out towards Castiel. "I talked to Cassie several months ago. I assumed he told you..."

The Winchesters and Crowley turned to Castiel. "You did what?! Why didn't you tell us, Cas?!" Dean yelled.

Castiel glared at Gabriel. "I thought he was just one of Metatron's mirages that tricked me into visiting Heaven for a moment," he explained and crossed his arms.

Dean slowly nodded his head. "Okay, makes sense." He went back to glaring at Gabriel. "Now explain how you managed to escape Lucifer's grasp and how you were in cahoots with Metatron."

Gabriel growled at Dean. "First **you** tell **me** how Team Free Will fucking broke the world again! I heard that this is probably the 4th time you brought the world into trouble!"

"Really? Damn." John muttered and shook his head. "I raised two hellfires - wait, shit!" His eyes widened and he shook both of his sons. "Let's just drop whatever's going on right now for later business - we have to save your sister!"

Both Dean and Sam's jaws dropped in shock, then their faces switched to anger, causing the angels and demon in the room to slowly back away and zap into the kitchen.

"OUR SISTER?! WE HAVE A SISTER, TOO?!" Dean shouted in John's face.

The Winchester father wrinkled his nose but he tried to remain calm by thinking about that one special girl. "Too? Son, you don't remember?" He asked in a soft tone.

Sam grimaced and stepped up beside Dean. "Remember what? That we have a younger half brother named Adam? That right now he could have graduated from college, so when he was born it had only been a few years after the fire and Mom's death?" He growled deeply.

John's eyes widened. "Oh shit, I wasn't planning on telling you until after adopting Nikki..." He blurted out in a trailed off ramble.

Both his sons turned confused at him. "Nikki? Who's Nikki?!" They shouted at the same time.

"Nikita! Nikita Yuson?" The Winchester boys shook their head slowly, not remembering. John sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Dean, remember that time when you called me and we both felt dizzy that day?"

Dean slowly nodded but Sam looked more confused than ever.

"...well, turns out it could have been a witch that did that to us. According to your archangel over there in the kitchen, probably eating - " "I CAN HEAR YOU!" "- something sweet right now, our memories were tampered with by a witch. Thankfully, Gabriel returned my memories when he brought me back from the living and decided you need my help for this Darkness business. Nikita is included in this, believe it or not."

"...Dad, who is Nikita to us?" Sam had to ask.

John looked at Sam and then Dean with a sad smile on his face. "Someone who deserved to be a part of our family, just as we deserve to be in hers." His face changed with a look of determination. "We have to look for her, _**now**_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's right! Gabriel has brought John Winchester back from Heaven! Plus with his additional memories that got wiped away in the time travel! :)
> 
> Found the image from this chapter on Google Images.
> 
> Is anyone else anticipating for the Fallout? (a.k.a. Sam & Dean talking to John about Mom's family of hunters, Adam, Bill Harvelle, Men of Letters, and Henry Winchester)
> 
> Talking. Right.
> 
> Also I do have Latin fail. I tried to say, "Defend this home against all who give ill intentions. Awaken for the kiss of true love." I swear I did not use Google Translate but it was a word for word online translator helping me with this pretend spell chant. 
> 
> Also, the spell isn't real. Don't try that at home.


	5. Conversations in Baby

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean starts to remember and joins in with his father's hunt for the missing girl. Gabriel informs the Winchesters and Castiel who and what exactly Nikita Yuson is. Sam finds old photographs that remind him of the girl. Castiel attempts to help John catch up on current events and who he is to the Winchesters. John learns about his recently late father and son, Adam, and waits for the possible fallout from the rest of his sons.
> 
> And all of this happening in the Impala. Groovy.

Dean stood there for a long time by the stairway. Everyone else waited and stared at Dean's rigid figure and John's desperate look on his face.

Castiel could tell when Dean's mind snapped at a sudden memory, and the next thing he knew, Dean ran down the spiral staircase and sprinted towards his room. "We're gonna pack and leave in five minutes!"

Sam gaped at Dean and furrowed his eyebrows at his father, who was now grinning with a gleam of hope in his eye. "Dad?"

John turned to his youngest son and winked. "You heard your brother. Go pack and we'll be going to Salvation, Iowa." And with that, he fled down the stairs and went to pack up his own stuff.

The taller Winchester sighed, feeling clueless, and slowly moved down the stairs and toward his own room.

Castiel, Crowley, and Gabriel glanced at each other after the last human left the main room of the Bunker.

"...so..." Gabriel announced. "...should I tell them that we could just zap their stuff in a millisecond to the Impala and leave? Or better yet, fly all of us into Salvation, Iowa?"

Crowley sighed. "These bloody Winchesters fucking have a one-track mind. They don't even realize that we can just either pop new clothing out of nowhere or give ourselves one touch or snap - and presto! We're clean as a whistle."

"I think that Dean especially would appreciate the lack of magic in his life, despite it being useful in his favor," Castiel began to explain. "He has told me numerous times to walk instead of zap if I want to go from one room to the next room so I would prevent being lazy. Dean likes to feel useful and be around people who can be useful in one way or the other." He straightened his posture and nodded. "I shall go help John pack for supplies needed if this Nikita person is still alive." He sauntered over to the kitchen.

Gabriel and Crowley stared after Castiel's retreating figure, then turned to give each other a bemused look.

"Did you really had to endure Cassie's eye fuck fest with Dean this whole time? I don't envy you."

"It beats being around my mother."

* * *

  ** _One hour later..._**

"You mean this whole time I have been taking care of a Nephilim?"

Gabriel nodded at John's question (sounded more like a demand) and scanned his eyes around the Impala. Due to his short size, he was able to call middle seat in the backseat area of the vehicle. Dean was driving while Sam was typically at the passenger side. On his left sat the legendary John Winchester, who he recently brought back to the living permanently. He considered bringing Mary, but as it turns out she didn't want to leave Heaven. Mary told Gabriel that she recently heard from Ash and the Harvelles about Bobby Smith's capture in Heaven, so she's sticking around to help free and hide him before searching for Karen, Bobby's wife.

Sitting on Gabriel's right side was Castiel, who looked very smug.

It was probably due to the fact that Crowley had to stay behind at the Bunker, though sadly he couldn't be in the Devil's Trap. (It was Dean's idea, much to Sam and John's reluctance.) The King of Hell didn't even want to leave the Bunker due to fact that his mother can never trace him in that location.

But that still made Castiel feel happy that he'd spend less time with Crowley.

It was good for everyone that Castiel spend less time with Crowley.

For the past hour, Gabriel had briefly explained why a witch may have something to do with Nikita Yuson, the girl that John and Dean have decided to travel to Salvation, Iowa for.

He sighed and leaned back in his seat, popping a Tootsie Roll into his mouth. "Hopefully the young fledgling is there once we arrive there, and that the witch didn't get to her first. You mentioned something about a backup spell that you two cooked up?"

John nodded solemnly. "She really loved learning witchcraft stuff and quickly showed me the 'scientific research' way about it, so I caved in and bought her this ancient book of spells I found for her 14th birthday. Didn't think the spell could work for a human, so her being a Nephilim would make sense of why her previous experiments have worked in a few cases we were in together," he explained his story and sighed deeply. "I promised that girl I'd help take care of her, and I was going to surprise her with the signed forms from her parents. I actually had to buy my way to get them to sign those 'revoke legal guardianship' papers."

Gabriel snapped his fingers. "Sorry to bug you about this, but we have to keep track on this theory of yours. You can tell us the sob stories later." He bluntly told him.

The elder Winchester glared at him and huffed, but reluctantly continued to speak to the archangel. "Nikki found a spell, but the incantation was pretty odd yet blunt in understanding, so I didn't really think she'd use that spell. However, we hadn't come up with another spell that could be used to protect her and the cabin we were hold up in for about a day or so."

"What was the spell, Dad?" Dean asked while driving and simultaneously glancing at the rearview mirror to see his father. He wanted to reassure himself that his father was legitimately there. Sam and Castiel noticed what Dean was doing but didn't voice out anything about it, which Dean was grateful for.

"Somethin' `bout defending the spell caster's home and that the spell will awaken once she receives a kiss from true love. Like I would do that! She's like a daughter to me." John grumbled the last couple of sentences under his breath.

Gabriel laughed and shook his head, pulling out a lollipop and sucking it. Sam noticed that that was the 20th piece of candy Gabriel had been eating and made a face when he turned towards him more. The archangel ignored him for John's attention. "True love doesn't have to be romantic. It could be a kiss on the cheek or forehead from a loved one, like family or a close friend who cares deeply."

Dean perked up from his seat. "Like that case with the fairytale stories due to the evil stepmother, remember Sammy? Snow White passed away peacefully when her father finally learned the truth about his recent late wife and kissed his daughter's forehead." He wrinkled his nose. "Do you think Nikita's body vessel will age once we get to the cabins?"

It was Castiel this time who shook his head. "I believe I remember a similar spell to this. A Queen from England many years ago developed this spell after the influence she had been under by a witch who cursed her when she was a baby. She had accidentally pierced her finger with a sharp metal object and fell into slumber until her true love found her and kissed her. The point is that everyone at the castle and herself were frozen in time as well as their physical forms." He paused and turned to Gabriel. "I believe the Queen's name had been Aurora, right, Gabriel?"

All the Winchesters turned to the angel in shock. "You mean Sleeping Beauty is a real story?!" Dean shouted/asked/demanded. One never knew what tone Dean specifically sounds like when he gets this way.

Before Castiel could respond, Gabriel snapped his fingers again. "Hey, hey! Getting off track again here! Let's get back to how the fuck Nikita ended up in the Yuson family when she was supposed to be into witness protection in the Tuico family under the name 'Caylao'."

Now all eyes were on the archangel.

"Come again?" asked John.

Castiel's eyes widened and he blurted out his thoughts before Gabriel could respond. "Caylao is a Filipino name for 'fellow light bearer'. Could this possibly be the Nephilim that the Morningstar was supposed to care for, had he not tried to destroy humanity the first time?"

Gabriel sadly nodded, causing the others to gape in shock. "Dean, I suggest you turn around and focus on driving. We have about 5 hours left to reach to the cabins in Salvation." He turned towards John again. "That's why Nikita Yuson shouldn't have existed, yet somehow fit into the plane of existence, so the Fates didn't think anything was wrong. Father deliberately made sure this fledgling was to be under the disguise as Caylao Tuico in Canada. Instead of being born there, she was born in Los Angeles. Someone must have messed with the information, because she somehow interfered with the Winchester timeline..." The archangel trailed off and his eyes widened, but then shook his head. "No, my Father is not that messed up of a man. Only he could have altered her birth records, but... no, he's not that much a dead-beat dad. I can't... I can't..." He trailed off as he took a deep breath to calm down and lowered his head in his hands.

"I still can't believe Lucifer was the one who was supposed to take care of a baby Nephilim," Sam spoke his thoughts aloud.

Dean snorted and nodded in agreement. "I can't believe he was supposed to take care of any baby at all!"

"Hey! I did alright, and so did Cassie!" Gabriel protested in a whine.

Castiel covered his face in embarrassment as silence passed through the Impala.

"...Gabe, are you actually insinuating that you and Cas were raised by the Devil at one point in your lives?" Sam slowly asked.

Castiel groaned and glanced at his watch that he recently received from Dean as a small token of a 'welcome back to somewhat sanity in the Winchester World' gift. It was silver and the circle with the numbers on it was as blue as his vessel's eyes. He read the time and sighed.

Only 5 more hours to go....

* * *

  _ **Another hour later...**_

"Hey guys, check this out!"

Castiel and John just came from the store of the gas station with small treats for the road trip and pie for Dean. Dean and Gabriel glanced over at Sam with them. Sam had been digging for more change through the glove department of the Impala and found his wallet from when he went to Stanford University. In it, he had pulled out a few polaroid photos that appear to have been located in the hospital. Sam's heart sank seeing his young happy face with Jessica. He flipped through a few photos and noticed they centered around a certain young girl.

Dean pointed at the girl in the photos. "I remember you showing me this. Her genetic structure made me remember her back in California City when she was a tiny girl."

Sam nodded. "You know, I think I remember this girl at this hospital... Jess used to always intern there for the summer and I would often visit. This was taken during the summer before Jess died..." Sam trailed off and looked down at Dean funny. "Since when do you analyze genetic structure on people?" His eyes widened in horror. "Oh no, _please_ don't tell me you wanted to do her, Dean! She's so many years behind you!"

Both Dean and John snorted. "No, you pervert! I wouldn't do that to any kid!" Dean spat and climbed back into the car after filling up the tank of gasoline.

The tall man looked confused. "Then how..." "Sam." John interrupted, causing his youngest son to turn at his attention. 

"Your brother is actually very good with physics and arithmancy. I was actually shocked when he told me he wanted to quit school... he told me at 13 [years old] that he considered engineering in community college - "

"Dad, don't!"

John glared at the hood of the car as if he could see through it and see his son. "Your brother deserves to know what could have been."

"But there's no point!"

Castiel decided to speak up. "Actually, Dean, there are places such as California that have numerous students who are around your age and older attending community college and transferring to a university institution for education. It is not too late for you to achieve this education your father speaks of. Remember: I raised you from Perdition and rebuilt your body. I know almost everything about you and I feel you have potential for a degree in engineering."

Everyone stared at Castiel for a moment before John broke the silence with another snort. He patted Castiel on the shoulder. "I like you, kid." He turned to his son and bent down to definitely take a good look at him through the open window. "See, son? Even the angel of the Lord sees that you got a chance and approves."

Dean frowned and turned to Sam, who was torn between staring at the photos that he now remembers when they were taken and giving Dean the puppy eyes to back up their father.  _Dammit, Sammy..._ he thought to himself then perked up at a sudden thought. He turned towards Gabriel, who already climbed into the backseat and started eating a chocolate covered pretzel. "Gabriel! Can't you stop them from being offtrack? Tell them that I don't have to go to school anymore so we can go find the poor girl!"

Gabriel chewed in thought and swallowed before replying. "...I could maybe conjure up any kind of diploma to skip any detours in education - "

"Hah! See guys?! Archangels know better! There's no point!" Dean interrupted with a shout and grin.

" - but then again you Winchesters never liked the easy way out, so you're always going to regret not ** _earning_** a diploma that angels could conjure up with a flick of the wrist." The archangel finished his thought and took another bite of his pretzel.

Dean gaped at him while the rest of the group grinned.

Gabriel raised an eyebrow at Dean. "If you want someone familiar to go with you, I could make Castiel a professor looking for hire to whichever schools you get into. He could teach mythology and religion." He snickered as he polished his last part of his meal to finish. "Man, I wish I was a fly on that classroom wall... oh wait, I can be. I don't even have to BE a fly - I can be a student!"

* * *

  _ **Just 3 more hours to go...**_

"I can't believe my boys have been through that much together and haven't fallen apart because of me yet." John sighed and looked down at his calloused hands. "It's no wonder how they're much stronger than me when they're together and apart. I could barely keep myself together."

Castiel stared at John with wonder and sadness in his eyes at the same time. At this point Gabriel is snoring on Castiel's right side by the window. As an archangel Gabriel doesn't have to sleep, but he likes humanity so at that moment he decided to conjure up a happy dream for himself. Sam had been appointed to drive while Dean decided to sleep after eating his pie. For the past hour or so John and Castiel have been whispering to each other, to which Sam ignored while driving because he didn't wish to eavesdrop on that conversation. He knew the angel felt obliged to report to his father about all that they've been through since he first met them.

Sam definitely didn't want to know if John's reaction towards Castiel's obsession over Dean would be positive or negative. He was banking on negative.

"...I'm just glad that you're very attentive to my boys, especially Dean. Lord knows he's been through enough."

What.

Sam snapped his fingers lightly beside his ear.

Yep, he could definitely hear.

_Did Dad really say that just now?_

"...so you were human twice, though the recent time was a full blown crash course in humanity for ya, before you got grace in you."

"Yes, John, my full experience with humanity was very recent."

"Did you get drunk?"

Of course John Winchester would ask that.

"No, but as an angel I drank a liquor store. I believe I was inebriated after finding out my Father did not care for me."

It seemed that John wanted to dodge the Heavenly Father issue completely (especially with Gabriel's quick mental breakdown a couple of hours earlier) because he quickly changed subjects. "What did you enjoy about humanity the most, then?"

"I enjoyed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches without the taste of molecules in particular," Castiel replied with a slight joyful tone in his deep raspy voice, which made Sam wonder if Castiel still misses humanity. "I also enjoyed warm showers with great water pressure and hedonism."

"Hedonism?!" _Oh crap._

"Yes. I had sex with a reaper named April, but sadly I did not know she was a reaper at the time until she attempted to kill me." There was a pause in Castiel's voice. "I believe she did kill me until... _Gadreel_ brought me back."

"Who's Gadreel?"

Sam winced at the memory of the deceased angel. He wanted someone to change the subject quick, but the two in the back have already assumed Sam wasn't paying attention.

Fortunately, Castiel was able to feel Sam's discomfort (thank God for angel powers) because it was his turn to change the subject after a brief close on the previous topic. "He was manipulated his whole life and it brought him great despair in his angelic being, but he changed for the better and died a true warrior of Heaven and Humanity." He sat up and adjusted his seating posture in a calm and relaxing state. "Anyway, I had found sex to be quite pleasing with women."

Sam could see his father nodding through the rear-view mirror but the following question from him had him stumped.

"What about sex with men?"

"I did not have the luxury to experience it."

"What? What about Dean then?"

"What about Dean?"

Sam glanced at Dean and focused on the road with wide eyes. Did his father know that he was listening in, is that why he brought up the subject?

"I've noticed half the time that you stare at my eldest son more than my youngest, and that you spend more time with Dean than a regular person would as friends."

"Dean and I have always shared a profound bond since I raised him from Perdition."

"Yeah, I noticed you mentioned that before. Is that a type of euphemism for 'technically mated' or 'married'? Because Gabriel mentioned to me after he brought me back to the living how gay marriage is now legal in the United States."

_Oh my God._

"I believe I have heard of that law passing. I find it ridiculous how humans have decided over the years to restrict genders when it comes to relationships. God is indifferent to sexual orientation, as am I."

John snorted in amusement. _Oh God, here it comes. I hope Castiel doesn't smite his ass for being this homophobic asshole -_

"Man, I know what you mean. Back in the Marines, I used to cover for a buddy of mine so he can visit his boyfriend during breaks. Last I heard, after we all retired they moved to Maine and adopted two children. I was actually made a godfather, but then I up and died, man. At least the kids grew up and got into college, the last time I checked."

_....what??_

Now, Sam wasn't sure whether to count this as a sudden fortunate or misfortunate interruption, but either way it seemed really important when Gabriel woke up with a shout and scanned the area with wide eyes. Dean woke up with a snort, ending his quiet pig snoring habit he developed since God knows when. Both John and Castiel glanced at the archangel with questioning gazes.

Gabriel blurted out, "I remember now! I used to time travel with Captain Jack Harkness and the Doctor!"

Everyone in the car stared at him with incredulous looks, except for Sam, who was too busy trying to drive in the dark night... or daylight. One could never know with the Darkness spreading around the world.

The short archangel wrinkled his nose and sighed. "Does anyone ever watch Doctor Who here?! I know a bunch of humans from the UK made the damn show!"

John and Castiel continued to stare at him blankly. Sam suddenly remembered and nodded, noticing in surprise how Dean nodded along and said something that anyone in the car would never expect  _the_ Dean Winchester to say.

"Gabriel, did you bring the show to life or something? Because I'd rather not deal with Weeping Angels or Daleks while we're in this trip."

Sam glanced at Dean with an incredulous look. "Dude, you actually watch the show?"

Dean glared at him. "Duh, and bonus points on Clara and Jack being hot."

Sam slammed the brakes, sending everyone suddenly moving forward in their seats. Dean and John shouted profanities at Sam's driving skills while Castiel and Gabriel remained unfazed. The taller Winchester stared at his brother in shock. 

"Sammy, what the hell?!"

"Y-YOU... YOU JUST SAID CAPTAIN JACK IS HOT!"

Dean opened his mouth but closed it slowly hearing the words repeat again in his mind. He glanced at his father and his skin paled. John noticed this and looked over at his eldest son with caring eyes.

"Dean... it's okay. You don't need to be labeled as anything," he spoke in a calm voice, something Sam rarely ever heard of in his earliest memories of his father. "You can be with whoever you want to be, just so long as they don't break your heart. That's where I step in."

That's when Sam noticed how his brother started to shake and his hand almost reached for the door handle. Dean was going to run.

Apparently it seemed that Castiel caught him in the act because next thing anyone knew, the angel popped (or in Castiel's case "flew") right between the brothers to place a hand gently on Dean's shoulder. "No one judges you. Not my Father, and definitely not yours," Castiel spoke softly in his deep voice, in a tone that sounded so caring that Sam can't even recall when he ever heard the angel speak that way with anyone. "If you wish to spend romantic or lustful times with women more than men, it doesn't mean that you are not straight. Think of yourself as more a flexible man, Dean. Your family will not judge you."

John couldn't help but snort. "Except for Mary's family. They were always so full of their 'righteous' beliefs that that was what convinced Mary to elope with me... well, before the Michael situation Castiel here told me just now."

Dean slightly smiled, but it was so small that it was barely even seen. Sam caught on to it and shook his head, smiling. "Dean, we're not gonna make a big deal about this. You can date who you want to date - "

"So long as you have my approval." John interrupted. "If you're interested in someone I have to check them out in case they have other motives." 

"...yeah, so long as you have _both_ our approval." Sam glanced at his father before turning back to his brother, who turned bright pink. Luckily for him, Gabriel saved him by coughing loudly to get everyone's attention.

"Yeah, yeah, great dramatic moment for the Winchester clan. Question though: Can I go back to my epiphany of what I just remembered?"

Castiel frowned. "Brother, I seem to be not getting the relevance to your epiphany of your lost memories with this... Doctor... and this Captain you speak of."

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Man, seriously? Okay, I'll get straight to the point." He turned to John as Sam started to drive on the empty road again. "Do you remember a nurse named Richard? What did he look like?"

John blinked and scratched his head. "Hmm... actually, yeah, I remember a nurse with that name... he helped Nikki and had this Victoria Secret umbrella..." He trailed off and narrowed his eyes at the archangel as he suddenly remembered who Gabriel reminded him of. " _Doctor **Harkness**_ and Richard the nurse?"

Gabriel chuckled nervously before popping out the unopened umbrella in his grasp. "Surprise? Also... one of the Weeping Angels may have slipped through this alternate dimension we live in and transported the Nephilim from one family to another, thus she became Nikita Yuson." He sighed with a bit of a relief. "At least it wasn't Dad's fault this time, huh, Cassie?"

Castiel frowned. "You and Balthazar have had called me that for years. I do not like it."

"Tough shit. You killed Balthy, so now I call you Cassie!"

"You call me that anyway, Gabriel."

Gabriel booed. "You're no fun!"

"Get back to the point, Gabriel." All three Winchesters spoke in unison.

Gabriel pouted but eventually relented. "So that's what happened to the Nephilim, and here we are, searching for her. You're welcome, by the way, of getting rid of the Weeping Angel who did this to her, as well as terrorizing the staff at the hospital near Stanford. Jack and I had a blast sending them all to the universe where majority of the Weeping Angels reside in."

There was silence in the car until Dean piped up coyly.

"So... does Jack look really handsome up close?"

John and Sam groaned in unison as Gabriel grinned at Dean. Castiel was internally evaluating himself as to why he felt dread when Dean started talking about a man he was attracted to.

* * *

  _ **One more hour left...**_

"...so I'm a Man of Letters as well?"

Everyone in the Impala nodded. Both Dean and Sam had taken turns telling their father how they met their grandfather, Henry Winchester.

"...I really wish I could talk to my old man. Shit... I just... dammit, Dad!" John slammed his open palm against the window.

Dean barked while driving, "Hey! No hurting my Baby!"

Castiel looked confused and couldn't help but voice out his concerns. "Dean, I assure you that you are not pregnant with a baby. Perhaps I should check your mental health later on at the next rest stop? You should be aware that human males do not get pregnant."

Everyone in the car stared at Castiel.

The angel noticed the heavy stares at him and turned toward Dean. "I may have taken you too literally."

Gabriel snorted. "Yah think, baby bro?"

John sighed and leaned his head against the window. "Did he die honorably, at least?"

"For the safety of his family, yes." Sam answered his father.

No one talked about how John shed silent tears for a few silent minutes. They let him keep his pride for a while and let him speak when he wants to.

"...I guess it was easier to think he was still alive and a bit of an asshole to leave his family." John muttered to himself, though everyone in the car heard him. He knew they heard him.

There was a bit of an intense silence before John spoke again.

"I'm proud of you boys... I'm sorry about Adam. I wish we could get him out of that Cage, but... yeah, I know we shouldn't." John sighed again. He was waiting for the fallout coming from his sons, but at the moment it didn't seem like it was going to happen, which was worse. He'd rather have them having pent up feelings than having them resign themselves to bad fate.

"...I know someone who can." Gabriel spoke up. "You guys are familiar with a little boy cambion named Jessie? Half human half demon?"

Dean slammed the brakes, yet swiftly parked to the side of the street to let others pass him by. He turned around just as swiftly to the archangel currently eating cheesecake. "You know where he is?"

Castiel frowned and sighed. "I regret trying to kill him at the time. I assumed he was a possible threat to humanity for when Lucifer reigns. Now I see that cannot happen. He is an innocent child."

Gabriel snorted. "Tell me about it. The dude is surfing in Australia and is _still_ a virgin! He's a teenager, for crying out loud!"

Sam's eyes widened. "Do you think maybe he could free Adam's soul into Heaven?" He asked with hope. John sat up quickly with more hope than his son at the possibility.

The archangel frowned as he finished his slice of cheesecake. "It's a two man mission, and only abominations, such as cambions and nephilims, can free souls that do not deserve Hell or Purgatory, and that includes the Cage. Since the Nephilim is nothing related to a demon, he or she must taint their wings slightly to help free any soul from the Cage in order to be the supporting strength that a Cambion needs. The only way to do that is for the Nephilim to free another soul from Hell."

Castiel thought about it carefully and turned to Dean. "You should call Crowley. Perhaps he may know which innocent soul can be saved."

* * *

"NO FUCKING WAY!" Dean roared into the phone, despite the call being on speakerphone.

Crowley's voice picked up on the phone. "Bela Talbot was an alias. Both of you knew that. Her real name - and you could all look this up for confirmation - was Abbie Harker. There were several reported yet unfiled documents of calls that Abbie tried to make to the police and the hospital that were local in her English home. They were never filed because her parents paid the officers to not officially file those charges. There was enough evidence, however, to prove that she was a victim of child abuse at her young age."

Sam had pulled out his laptop and WiFi hardrive, to which John verbally wondered where the fuck they came from and how did he miss the turns of technology, and looked up Abbie Harker. He nodded solemnly to Dean, who was driving while gritting his teeth due to several emotions going through him.

"Okay, Crowley. She was a victim of abuse. Maybe the cops figured it was an old fashioned spanking and some accidents that Bela got caught in? I mean, she always acted so spoiled and she sold her soul at a young age to you! So you could kill her parents!"

Crowley growled into the phone. "Do not make me burn my bacon by accident. I'm making eggs benedict." He turned off the stove from where he was, in the kitchen of the Bunker. "I did that poor girl a favor! I gave her a free life to do whatever she wanted to do. She was barely fed at her age and her parents were fucking rich! And hypocrites! Not to mention that there was more than child abuse going on in that household!"

Dean sensed a feeling of dread pass right through him and spread into the car. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means, you damn squirrel, that your 'spoiled and demonic' human named Bela happened to be sexually molested by her father almost every night!" Crowley shouted as he gathered the rest of the ingredients for his food onto the table. "This is why I personally did not like you back then, because you kept saying you found out about Bela's real history and still did not sympathize for her, when really she was never my so called lover, according to the damn Winchester gospel books! Her father kept doing this, and her mother did not care - just like how my mother did not care about my own well-being, which was how I sympathized with the damn girl!" He opened the packages for the English muffins. "Last I heard, her soul was in Hell, but for some reason I could not find it. Somehow I get the feeling that some demons stuck her in the same place where her parents are - SO YOU BETTER FIND THE DAMN NEPHILIM AND CAMBION AND SAVE THAT POOR GIRL OR THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES!" He hung up and continued to make his food while grumbling.

Dean slowly hung up the phone and turned to the other occupants in the car. After hearing the entire discussion, John frowned at his eldest son. "Really, Dean? I can't believe you said those words to her! Those were her last words before she died!" He slapped the back of his son's head. "No child should be touched that way at all! It might as well looked like you supported her late father when she was alive - "

"I know! Goddamnit!" Dean growled and hit the gas pedal with his foot, driving even more faster. 

Sam and Castiel looked at him with pity while Gabriel glared at him. It was Sam who spoke up. "Dean, you know we didn't know at the time... we only assumed."

"...yeah, well, we should have known. We should have investigated further in her case before calling her a bitch and dismissing it." Dean grumbled and rubbed his forehead. The sooner they get to Salvation, Iowa, the sooner that they could spring Bela out so he could apologize for an eternity.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's hard to recap all 10 past seasons of Supernatural. Seriously, this is my greatest effort to pull off a story fic with this much information altered for my idea to pull through.
> 
> Thank you all for reading! I will do my best to keep updating in between school and choir.  
> (Oh yeah, by the way, I sing. :) )
> 
> P.S.: A little more Doctor Who/Torchwood for you. ;)


	6. Frozen in Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Winchesters and the angels find the cabin where Nikita is kept in and find a way to unfreeze her from her own spell. The young girl is torn over what she wants to do with her life while the quest for Jessie and Bela is put in the back burner for now. The Winchesters happily take her in, though there are some catches to give her the life she deserves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to make a few points before anyone starts to read this chapter:
> 
> 1\. I edited this story a bit after posting the 5th chapter. I realize that maybe I made a couple of mistakes in the story but I'm not going to fix them because it's a fanfic. There's bound to be mistakes, so long as the story is executed and makes sense to the readers.  
> 2\. Also, I edited out a very important piece of information and I want to re-explain myself: The 1st conversation with Nikita and her family was the one where I altered my past events of my life and turned it into that. That 1st chapter beginning was when I was down and depressed and decided to vent out. The rest of what happens in the story are not of what I experienced as a child, especially with Bela's story. The writers actually made an implication that her childhood was that way in the actual show, at least from what I interpreted from the few clips shown of Bela's past.  
> 3\. No Frozen comments. Just... no.  
> 4\. I like seeing the numbers of how many people read this. It's a good number if it's increasing, whether slowly or fast. I don't mind any kudos or comments, and I do encourage to do so after you read if you want to. :)

The black 1967 Chevrolet Impala strolled down the small hill path and toward the front of the cabin. All five of the occupants in the vehicle climbed out and stared at the small brown cabin. The place actually looked decent if no one minded the cold and slightly icy particles hanging by the edges of the rooftop.

"This is the place..." John breathed out with a soft tone in his voice that made the boys (and angels) turn their heads to look at him. He slowly walked toward the cabin and glanced around for something.

Dean raised an eyebrow while rubbing his arms. No one commented when Castiel reached over and placed a hand on Dean's lower back to emulate warmth in his body. "...Dad? What are you looking for?"

John frowned as he scanned the front porch of the small cabin. He didn't seem to mind the cold much. "I'm looking for a spare key."

Sam frowned and glanced at the windows and door that was frozen shut. "I think maybe you might want to rethink that idea, Dad." He calmly suggested while pulling his jacket on from the car.

Gabriel rolled his eyes and made way to the door. "Move, Winchester. I can handle this." The short archangel strode over to the frozen wooden door and kicked it, smashing the entire door into smithereens.

Everyone stared at the archangel in awe, except for John, who nodded in appreciation before running through the very cold living room for Nikita. Gabriel followed him as the rest of the group slowly walked in through the rubble of the door's remains.

Sam noticed an opened envelope that looked worn out and slightly frozen, but not too much to break. He walked over to the table and picked it up, checking carefully of what's inside it. Dean noticed what he was doing and asked, "Whatcha got there, Sammy?"

The taller Winchester's eyes widened as he slowly pulled out and examined each document. "These are official copies of records stating that Dad is the sole guardian Nikita Yuson... and all evidence that points to the girl's existence." Sam gave Dean and Castiel the puppy look (the one where he shows he feels bad). "I can't believe we forgot her..."

Dean waved it away. "Stop that. And yeah, it sucks, but now we remember and the now is all that counts. The past is behind us." He strode over with Castiel still touching his back. His eyes caught on to a significant document and he picked it up. His eyes widened slightly. "Holy shit." He mumbled in awe.

"What?" Sam asked when he glanced up from what he was reading, which was a contract of rights made by John Winchester that was approved by the Yuson family's lawyer.

Dean picked up the document while Castiel looked over his shoulder. "This is Dad's will, before he forgot he even wrote one." He whispered in amazement as he read on. "It says here that if he ever dies I get full parental rights... he used one of my working aliases to give his guardianship to if he ever passes on..."

"What?! Lemme see that!" Sam shouted in shock and grabbed the will from his brother, then read it carefully. "Dean, it says here that you'd only get the rights if you have a stable home that the CPS can use to check you and her up in - "

"That's easy! It's the Bunker!" Dean interrupted with a smile slowly growing on his face. He felt happy that his own father would have given him custody of someone he cherishes in case he dies.

" - AND you need to be married. With both of you actually having god-to-honest jobs." Sam finished with a slight smirk on his face, watching the smile fall and turn into shock and dismay.

"No! What?! He wants me to get hitched?! Gimme that!" Dean grabbed the will from his brother and read the whole document quickly, whining afterwards.

Castiel raised an eyebrow at the brothers after taking a glance at the birth certificate. He shook his head and left to go find his brother and John Winchester.

* * *

John and Gabriel entered the bedroom. The former's breath hitched at the room of icy furniture. "The source is in here... I know where she's hidden."

The archangel turned to look at John with a raised eyebrow. He watched as the hunter dashed towards the closet door and slid it open to crouch down at the floor. John pried a loose floorboard open, letting the three other floorboards crumple. _Huh,_ Gabriel thought to himself. _I guess there was a door... I couldn't even sense it._

The eldest Winchester ran down the small stone steps and cautiously slid over to the bed as soon as he saw the girl he was looking for. "Nikki!" He shouted as he quickly gathered her in his arms. It took a brief moment because of how heavy the frozen young girl was with her frozen skin. He looked on in dismay at her pale blue lips.

"Careful, Winchester. She might break if you go rough on her." Gabriel lightly commented as he sauntered over to the bed and sat down gingerly on the icy bed sheets. He scanned his surroundings and internally noted how well the spell worked for Nikita.

John's eyes widened in panic at Gabriel and nodded before turning to the young Asian girl. "Baby, I'm so sorry..." He whispered breathlessly, nearly tearing as he carefully gathered the frozen girl into his embrace more. His lips gently kissed her forehead, and that's when a miracle happened.

To both Gabriel and John's shock, the hidden basement slowly felt warm in temperature. Castiel calmly walked down the small stone of stairs to look for them. "The ice is rapidly melting around the cabin," he informed his brother. "I suggest we evacuate the area before the wet wooden material of this old cabin collapses on us." He turned to John and added, "Your sons have found the documents that prove your words and their lost memories true. They are now arguing about custody rights for the child in your arms."

As soon as Castiel spoke his last sentence, the cabin's interior foundation started to creak more than usual. Immediately the three men ran up the stairs and out of the hidden basement, but not before John securely kept Nikita in his arms and Gabriel fetched the now unfrozen big book of spells that Nikita had used for the spell in the first place. He deemed it useful.

"WE HAVE TO GO, NOW!" Dean shouted as the creaks got worse and shakes suddenly began throughout the foundation of the cabin structure. Sam quickly grabbed the envelope and its contents before hightailing it out of the cabin with his brother following him.

Soon after Dean's feet landed on soiled earth the cabin began to visibly shake and collapse right after Gabriel, Castiel, and John ran out of the small building with a little girl and thick big book in tow. Together, the makeshift family watched the cabin quickly turn into a wet wooden rubble.

"...well that was weird. What triggered it?" Dean asked the others.

Gabriel snapped and pointed at John. "Your father kissed the Nephilim on the forehead and **presto**! Ice melted but weak foundation blasted due to the strength of the spell and how weak the foundation of the cabin was to begin with."

".... mmmm... Johnnn... where are we?" A soft voice spoke with a tone of fatigue.

All eyes snapped over to the little girl in John's arms who rubbed her eyes with one of her hands. She no longer looked frozen or dead.

John smiled brightly and he openly wept, which was a foreign sight to see for everyone else around him.  He clobbered the young girl in a big hug. "Nikki, you're awake! Thank Heavens you're alive!" He exclaimed with open glee.

Nikita blinked blearily at him and nodded slowly in confusion. "I had to do somethin'... a witch called Rowena and some Megatron douche was plannin' somethin'..." she mumbled softly, causing the others to worry at what she said.

Sam shook his head. "That's impossible! There's no way that Rowena and Metatron were here that day!" Gabriel turned to him with a raised eyebrow. "Are you kidding? This makes so much more sense now! Time travel does exist - hell, you guys have tried to change your father and mother's pasts before! Twice, I may add!"

John frowned at that and turned to Castiel. "You didn't tell me about that."

Before both Dean and Castiel could respond, Nikita grabbed John's face and looked at him closely. "You look about a few years older..." She spoke more audible and clear, feeling more awake than before as she stretched her back a bit. She glanced at the Winchester brothers and her eyes widened slightly. "Whoa, you two look a lot older than when we first met!" She blurted out.

"You are indeed correct, Ms. Yuson." Castiel spoke up with a soft tender smile for her. "This is the year 2015."

Nikita's eyes widened in absolute confusion. She pointed at Castiel and Gabriel and narrowed her eyes at them. "Who're you people?"

* * *

"What do I do now?" Nikita whispered to herself, though everyone else heard her in the Bunker.

They quickly returned to Kansas via Angel air travel. Dean took care of parking the Impala in the garage exactly the way he wanted it while Gabriel and Castiel gave Nikita and John the 411 of what happened and who Nikita really is. Afterward, she stared off into the distance and nodded, though she felt so much more gloom and alarm at once with her new identity in reveal. John sat beside her through the whole ordeal silently as they both absorbed the information in the Library.

Upon hearing her question, John smiled softly and gently took the now dry documents that Sam grabbed from the cabin. "Well, if you wouldn't mind, maybe you could be my daughter?" He showed her the documents that were already signed and official. "I mean, it says you already are, but no one knew about these documents. I was going to surprise you for your birthday, but I didn't think that the damn witch would- " He got cut off when Nikita jumped into his arms with a joyful cheer. He beamed at the rest of the guys in the Bunker as he hugged Nikita tightly in his arms. "I'm takin' that as a yes, then."

Both Sam and Dean let out small smiles seeing their father with the new Winchester together. Castiel broke the moment by going through the documents displayed on the table. "There is a matter of creating a new identity for you, John Winchester. According to FBI records, you are deceased, so you cannot claim paternal rights." He glanced at the elder Winchester brother. "Dean, however, can get parental rights in the eye of the public as Dean Clapton."

John snorted as he let go of Nikita. "I forgot about that ID. The damn kid wanted aliases with anything that had music in it. Dean, one day someone is going to know and realize who we are." Dean smirked and shrugged as he leaned back in his seat.

Wanting to feel useful, Castiel gently took the documents and gave them back to Sam to scan with him. "I remember you using this alias for an FBI Agent identity. I used Castiel Page for that case as well, the particular moment when we had Claire with us while finding her mother." He helped Sam forge new documents for 'Dean Clapton'. "I rather enjoy Dean's aliases." Sam and Gabriel snorted and tried to hide their laughter.

Ignoring the men laughing, Dean frowned. "Didn't Dad's will say that I had to have a job, have a home, and be married?"

John glanced around the Bunker. "Well this is our home. You could always say you retired from the FBI and find a decent job for now. As for being married... I have an idea."

Dean did not like his father's grin. Not one bit.

* * *

"This is not what I signed up for when I imagined an apple pie life."

"You didn't imagine much of an apple pie life, period."

"Both of you shut up while I forge these documents."

 There was a grumbled "Yes sir" as Dean trudged into the dining room with Sam holding his arm in a tight grip. Castiel was signing a document that John just finished forging out, claiming that Castiel now has parental rights over Nikita Yuson. The angel gave the pen to Dean, who grunted but reluctantly took it to sign the document. 

Gabriel, meanwhile, sat in the corner gloomily in a small ring of fire in the kitchen. Apparently earlier while Sam tried to catch Dean from escaping their father's idea, the archangel decided to feed Nikita a bag of sweets. Although Nikita is a Nephilim, her body reacts like a human and has human habits. Gabriel had forgotten this once Nikita took a bite of chocolate and immediately howled in pain.

It turns out the Nephilim had a cavity and is in need of a root canal.

John had growled and managed to rib a new one at Gabriel's disposal, tossing him into a ring of holy water fire after he was done yelling.

Now Nikita silently munched on spaghetti that Castiel quickly cooked (something he remembered perfecting when he was human) after taking pain medication. John decided to find a doctor and a dentist for his daughter's needs, but in order to pay less and get insurance, he decided to quickly forge documents for Dean Clapton's custody for the kid, thus emphasizing his idea to have Castiel Page married to Dean in forged documents.

Dean had run away when the idea was proposed for the first time. Sam had to capture him.

Dean grunted as he slumped in a chair beside his new husband/angel. He glanced at him and gulped upon seeing a content smile on Castiel's face. "I would gladly help raise your sister, Dean." He informed the hunter.

The man sighed but nodded reluctantly. "Okay, we're married now. We have to find jobs for both of us." Dean turned to his father. "Can't Sam find a job with us?"

"Sam already has a job - researching for hunts and being your lawyer." John spoke calmly as he finished the last of the documents and gave them all to Sam, who looked smug. "From now on he's Sam Wesson who graduated at Standford, and opened up his own independent practice law firm for hunters in the U.S. Congratulations, son. You're your brother's top client."

"But - what about Crowley?" Dean asked in haste. "Don't we need to find Jesse and spring Bela and Adam out from Hell?"

John pointed at a pouting Gabriel. "As soon as that asshat learns his lesson not to feed children too much sweets, he can go talk to Jesse in Australia. In the meantime he already sent Crowley there to coax him in agreement. He'll call us about the kid later - seems that the King of Hell took an interest to Jesse's foster mother, who happens to be single." He pointed to the door. "Now go quickly find a job with your angel and come back with groceries - and don't you give me that look, boy! I know your angel can make money appear and disappear, so use those powers at your disposal."

Sam snickered and Dean pointed the middle finger at his brother while Castiel dragged him to the garage for the Impala.


	7. Attempting to Raise A Child: Mark #1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean and Castiel find jobs while John connects to the Hunter World again with Sam's help. Gabriel eventually is released from John's trap to contact Crowley on an update with Jesse's life. A surprise visit arrives at the Bunker with more news that could change the Winchesters' lives.  
> Meanwhile Nikita starts to dream again after being in a dreamless sleep for many years. The content in her dreams seems to be too realistic for it to be a dream...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that Piper Boy & Dreaming Child title is a bit weird considering the story so far has nothing to do with the title, but don't worry! I'm getting to that part soon. ;) Please do enjoy this chapter!

After leaving the Bunker with the Impala, Dean and Castiel drove toward the nearest populated area in town to look for a job. To get insurance in support for raising the Nephilim, the now legal couple had to find legal jobs with a good benefits package.

As Dean parked the car in front of a grocery store, Castiel sat up straight once a thought had suddenly occurred to him. The hunter noticed his friend's posture and turned to towards him. "You okay, Cas?"

Castiel turned towards his best friend. "Dean, your father stated that I should use my grace for monetary use, correct?"

Dean raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Yeah, in some terms, he said that."

"Wouldn't it be easier to create insurance to help benefit your sister and to make our own jobs? I used some of my grace earlier to help Sam authenticate legal documents of our marriage, identities, and custody of Nikita."

"I think what my dad meant in the will _and now_ is that I shouldn't be lazy with my life, and neither should my spouse." Dean answered honestly but paused for a short moment. "...then again, we could always create a company here in town and do that insurance thing you just said." He looked around and sighed, climbing out of the car. "I have absolutely no idea what I want to do for work occupation, though."

The angel climbed out of the Impala and walked towards Dean. "I seem to recall an earlier conversation in 'Baby' about your discontinued education. Perhaps we can put you in community college for part time? We all still believe you can achieve a degree in education."

Dean frowned at him and opened his mouth to argue, but Castiel interrupted him and went on. "You have a knack for engineering and it would be a waste to not use your talents into a great career, had you not gone into hunting."

"Cas..." Dean began and shook his head. "I'm always a hunter, through and through. I've tried the full non-hunting life and it hasn't stuck."

"Perhaps you could do both, Dean. If not for yourself, then at least for your own sister."

 _Damn, low blow there._ Dean thought with a groan. He wiped his face down in exasperation with his palm and looked directly at Castiel for a moment. "...fine. I'll think about the damn education, okay? For now let's focus on trying to find a job - but _after_ we buy groceries." Dean marched away from the angel and into the grocery store. He did not want to think about turning domestic in a chic-flick kind of way. Nope.

Castiel stared at Dean's back for a moment before following him while muttering, "This is probably moving too fast for Dean..."

* * *

 John stared at Sam's new upgrade on his laptop. "This is kinda moving too fast for me... how do you use the cursor on this doo-hickey?"

Sam, who just got dressed from the shower and is currently drying his hair, moved over to the table in the Library area of the Bunker and pulled out a small USB drive. He plugged it into the side of the laptop and pulled out what resembled a computer mouse to John. He raised an eyebrow at it when Sam showed how it worked wirelessly before giving it to him.

"...seriously, I'm nine years gone on Earth and so much shit like this is makin' me think I'm in Back To The Future."

His younger son snorted while finishing on drying his hair. "You're not  _that_ old, though you really need to be updated on everything, including on the hunting lifestyle. Not all monsters are bad."

It was John's turn to snort and guffaw as he looked through the internet browser for the nearest and most reliable dentistry in Lebanon. "Yeah, right, and unicorns do exist."

Sam smirked at his father. "Well... there was this one case Dean and I was on..."

"Oh no, don't you finish that sentence!" John grumbled as he got up to get himself a sandwich and a beer. "Ain't no such thing as unicorns!" He hollered while retreating from the Library, earning a heartfelt laugh out of Sam.

* * *

Castiel walked with Dean through the local mall after grocery shopping with him. They had to find new clothes to wear for the people who missed nine years of their lives of the latest common fashion trends (according to their new identities; John Clapton [Dean's brother] and Nikita Yuson-Clapton).

The angel furrowed his eyebrows at Dean. "Why can't Gabriel use his grace to make clothes appear for your father and sister?"

Dean snorted in reply. "Like I said earlier, we're not gonna do this the lazy way. Besides, I don't want you and Gabriel wasting your graces away while you're both slowly replenishing it with Heaven's powers back in order."

Castiel sighed and nodded along, though he paused in his footsteps as he glanced at a shop on his right side.

"Alright, so we've got decent clothes for my family for at least a month, now we just have to go looking for normal clothes for you - " Dean stopped speaking once he noticed his friend was gone. He turned around and quickly found him standing still by the window of a random jewelry store.

He saw the way Castiel stared in awe at the different examples of customized rings by the window display. Somehow this sight before him prompted something in his mind because he walked back to Castiel and grabbed his hand. "Come on, let's go look into this store. We're officially married, remember?" He grinned at the angel as he said this.

Castiel's eyes widened in surprise before he settled his expressions in with a smile. "Very well. I have something in mind as well. Perhaps we can buy each other rings, just to be even?"

That stirred something strange inside the hunter as he gulped, staring at his friend. "Y-Yeah, that would awesome, man."

The angel beamed at him and practically dragged him into the store.

* * *

"Hello, my name is John Clapton and this here's my lovely niece, Nikki." The eldest Winchester introduced him and his adopted daughter to the front desk clerk of the dentistry. He and Sam brought the girl there for a dental checkup. "But I tend to check up on her as if she's my very own daughter. Nikki, darlin', say hi to the pretty lady here," he coaxed Nikita gently. The girl shyly waved at the front desk clerk, causing the young woman to squeal. "Awww~! She's so cute! You'll be bumped up on the waiting list, kay, sweetie?"

Meanwhile, Sam spoke quietly on the phone in code words to Garth, the ex-hunter-turned-happy-family-werewolf. "Yes, for the last time, Garth, John is back in the business and alive." A middle aged lady who sat next to Sam slowly turned to him with wide eyes. Sam noticed and quickly explained with a smooth reply. "My eldest cousin in the family was in the witness protection program for... conducting some business... he's been pardoned and is now a private bounty hunter." The woman's eyes widened more and quickly minded her own business, slowly scooching away from him as she grabbed a magazine to read and focus on.

The tall Winchester went back to the phone call. "Sorry, in public so my conversation has to be clipped... no, Garth, you have a family to help provide and take care of! ... really? Congrats on the pups!" John and Nikita overheard the conversation and gravitated towards the tall man's form on a plastic chair in the waiting room. "Wow, five already? All the more reason to stay home with your wife and tend to her... yeah, I'll be sure to let you know if you're needed. I have you under Emergency Contacts... great! I'll need that list to tell the other trusted - er, community members... and yes, I know, we'll find a team of people to take care of Chicago. Okay, bye Garth!" He ended the call and glanced up at his family. "Garth Fitzgerald IV says hi and that his wife recently gave birth to five puppies!" The woman earlier looked absolutely horrified with the conversation and darted out of the room.

John raised an eyebrow. "Puppies? Don't you mean babies?"

Sam's eyes widened in realization. "Shit! I forgot to mention - Dean and I have made some friends in the past several years... like I said earlier not _all_ monsters are bad, Dad. Long story short about Garth for example - he's the best hunter and a prodigy under Bobby, believe it or not. He recently got bit by a werewolf, though, but another one killed him and helped Garth stay on the animal raw meat to survive. Those two married and Garth is now staying at his wife's father's place in a farm."

John and Nikita gaped at him.

"Hey, he may be strange, but he's a really nice guy with a lot of hunting credentials under his belt. He's retired now, but he'll be sure to contact some people who still trust him in his state, then it'll start becoming a phone tree from there."

"But - " John started to respond, but luckily for Sam's mild temper still for his father, the dentist walked out of her office and smiled kindly at them. "Hello, my name is Doctor Granger and I'm here to examine Miss Nikita Yuson-Clapton?" She greeted herself and asked about her patient at the same time.

Nikita touched her cheek where her painful tooth was and glared at John. He chuckled a bit and led the young girl to the dentist's office. Sam shook his head and made a few more phone calls.

* * *

On the way home, Dean slowly parked at the front curb of an abandoned junkyard and climbed out of the car with Castiel. He walked toward the vacant lot and scanned the perimeter. "Maybe we could mojo a bit of money to buy this lot and turn it into a garage shop? It could be like Bobby's new legacy or somethin'." Dean suggested with a light shrug.

Castiel scanned the area and nodded alongside Dean. "Yes, and maybe we could use the empty office building a few blocks away from here and have some of the angels who want to stay on Earth to start an 'insurance company'. They could permanently fund your business and it would be entirely legal to the public eye."

"I like the way you're thinking, Cas." Dean smirked at him and subconsciously held Castiel's hand. In return the angel subconsciously squeezed Dean's hold on his hand.

If Bobby were to see this right now, he would be rolling in his grave, calling them oblivious stupid idjits.

"Hey, Cas..."

"Yes, Dean?"

"What would be your occupation?"

Castiel turned to look at him in thought. "Perhaps I can take on the educational system at the local university to teach mythology and the actual ways of faith with Heaven? I can have Gabriel create textbooks as proof and maybe future hunters or children rooted from hunter families can achieve an education while staying with their families and in the hunting life."

"I can do more than that, baby brother!"

Dean jumped at the sudden sight of Gabriel close by their faces. "Dammit, Gabe! You need a fucking bell! How did you even get out of the holy fire?!"

Gabriel frowned and bit a chocolate lollipop that came out of nowhere. "Your father sprung me out before having Sam drive him and the Nephilim to the dentist." He turned to Castiel." As I was saying, I can make a new institution or a university that specializes in the education for hunters worldwide! Can you imagine the possibilities?!" The archangel waved his hands in the air and spun a little, reminding both Dean and Castiel of a young boy playing outdoors. That was how excited Gabriel seemed to beat the moment.

"I can make you a professor in the institution AND a dean! You can be in charge since Hannah's already in charge of Heaven upstairs and will need the help of an archangel. Obviously we'll have the common core education to help those who haven't graduated from high school like Deano here, but we can offer majors such as Religion, Mythology, Voodoo - ALSO we can have Master degrees in Latin and other linguistics, Runes, and Rituals, Witches -" Gabriel took a big gasp at a sudden epiphany. "WE COULD BE LIKE HOGWARTS!"

The archangel continued to ramble on as Dean leaned slowly toward Castiel. "You know it'd be really awesome if you were a professor, but... should we really trust short stack here to make a replica of a school from a fantasy book?" He whispered in the angel's ear.

Castiel frowned at the thought and marched over to Gabriel. Ten minutes later Hannah appeared and helped Castiel calm Gabriel down. Dean decided to keep his distance and call whoever abandoned the salvage yard. He was ready to make a commitment for his family.

* * *

"The strangest thing is happening, Gabriel...."

Gabriel filed his nails in his own personal room at the Bunker with a phone by his ear. It had been three weeks since he helped Dean and Castiel maintain actual occupations with benefits, though he was still upset when he was outvoted over recreating an actual Hogwarts school. "Yeah?"

"...this woman can see Juliet and actually thinks she's the cutest dog she's ever seen!"

The archangel stopped filing his nails. "Jesse's foster mom? Did she sell her soul at any point in her life?"

"That's the bloody thing that's strange! She's purely human with a pure soul and she thinks my red eyes when they turn are sexy!"

"...oh boy, you got a keeper there."

"Shut it! We have a problem here!  _The human who's been raising Jesse sees hellhounds!_ How is that not an emergency for you?!"

"Since I was no longer bounded my Metatron's power. Now what's this girl's name again?"

Crowley let out a deep resigned sigh over the phone. "Her name is Angharad Ryan."

Gabriel stopped what he was doing.

"...hello? ...oh bloody hell could you stop laughing at her name?!" Crowley yelled over the phone once he heard the rise of hysterical laughter.

"I can't help it, man! She must be one ugly broad!"

"..."

The archangel suddenly heard a ping from his cellphone, indicating a text message. He looked over his phone to open the message and his eyes widened dramatically.

"HOLY SHIT SHE'S HOT! WHO THE FUCK NAMES THEIR KID  _ANGHARAD_?!"

"Apparently she was put up for adoption in Australia as a newly born baby and was named by one of the nuns at a nearby church. They unfortunately focus on meanings of the names rather than the less weird things you could name yourself."

"Man... oh hey, how's the kid, by the way?"

Crowley sighed into the phone. "The boy won't stop surfing, though I could see he uses his powers to draw the waves to him and keep all the sea monsters away. He really likes it here."

"Mhm. Did you ask him about the thing you wanted him and the Nephilim to do?"

"Yes, but he says he'll think about it. He's been making me try to persuade him by having me get along with his foster mother. Angie seems alright so far..."

Gabriel snickered. "Aw, you have a nickname for her!"

"Go choke on your feathers, chuckles. I'll contact you soon for an update." Crowley then abruptly hung up afterwards.

Gabriel continued to chuckle as he pulled out his stash of sweet goods.

Someone shouted in the hallway from a distance. "GABRIEL, IS THAT SOMETHING SWEET I SMELL? IT BETTER BE SOMETHING COOKED, NOT BOUGHT FROM THE CANDY SECTION OF THE STORE!"

"ALRIGHT ALREADY!" Gabriel yelled back and pushed his stash back in the secret compartment of his bed. He muttered to himself, "Damn Winchesters... they're like bloodhounds..."

* * *

There was a sudden knock at the door.

Everyone in the Bunker froze.

Dean quickly counted the hunting pack silently. His father was reading a few books by the shelves, Gabriel was on Sam's back, Sam was ignoring said archangel as he taught Nikita the common core education for high school in preparation to going to school soon, and he himself is currently holding Castiel's hand as they're reading a book. He didn't realize they were holding hands but he wasn't going to let go.

"Dean Winchester! Open up the door! I have Claire with me!"

 _Jody?_ Wait what, _Claire??_

John and Nikita looked over at the rest of the guys in confusion. Dean ignored everyone as he ran up the stairs to open the door. Seeing how he had his hand still eloped with Castiel's, he managed to drag him over to the door. The angel didn't seem to mind being lead anywhere.

Dean unlocked the door and opened it slowly after Castiel briefly scanned through the door and nodded at him. Out of nowhere a blonde blur whipped through the opening door and jumped into Castiel's arms, who quickly let go of Dean's hand to catch the being.

"Hello, Claire." Castiel greeted the blonde girl in his arms with a soft smile on his face.

Said girl named Claire looked up at him with a wide smile. "Hey, Castiel - check out my progress report! I can graduate from high school in a month!" She cheered as she pulled out her folded copy of her report from her back pocket to give to Castiel.

He took it from her and read the report, smiling softly at her. "Congratulations. Your parents would have been very proud of you."

Dean nodded in agreement and smiled at the young teenager. "Yeah, kid, congrats. You got plans after graduating?" He asked her as she hugged him quickly.

The young teenager beamed. "I got into the University of Kansas!"

Sam piped up. "That's great, Claire! We're all proud of you!"

Claire let out a shout before running down the stairs to greet the others, even those she didn't know because she was that excited. Dean turned to Jody, who walked in and closed the door to the Bunker a moment ago. "She's that excited, huh?"

Jody sighed. "Yep, and she decided to study as a Classics Major to help you guys on hunts." She hugged both Dean and Castiel before following them down the stairs to greet the others.

The blonde teenager saw the small young girl hiding behind a slightly tall man with a gruffy beard. Claire turned to Castiel and pointed at the man. "Who's he and the girl behind him?"

"That man would be Sam and Dean's father, John Winchester," Castiel responded. "The young girl behind him is Nikita Yuson-Clapton, a Nephilim who is currently 14 years old."

Claire gaped at the angel and spun to gape at the two strangers in front of her, who were eyeing her warily and took a step back.

"....Sam? Dean?" Claire called out as she turned back to the Winchesters. "Your lives are fucking weird."

"Language!" Jody automatically reprimanded the young girl with her authoritative voice. Claire snorted and rolled her eyes, but quickly stopped once she saw Castiel's stern glare aimed in her direction.

Jody noticed the small exchange and gestured to her young charge. "See? This is another reason why I fully supported her going to college, specifically around these neck of the woods."

Dean frowned. "What are you talking about? Isn't Claire gonna get that full college experience like Stanford man over here?" He asked as he gestured to his younger brother, who merely watched Jody and wanted to know what Jody was talking about, too.

"I have Claire's clothes in my trunk. She wants to be with her family." Jody bluntly spoke with a small smile on her face. "She's a joy to have around, but it's hard for her to be disciplined unless I mention either of you Winchesters or Cas here."

Claire nodded along with Jody's words and looked over at the Team Free Will men with wide puppy eyes. Dean frowned. "Dammit, did Sammy teach you that?!" He earned a bitch face from said man.

Castiel stared at Claire's eyes and pout, then nodded quickly. "Okay. We have much space to fill here, anyway. Plus I can fulfill my vow to take care of you and watch over you any chance I get when you start your classes."

Dean and Sam turned quickly to stare at Castiel. "Seriously?!" They both exclaimed. They glanced over at their father and adopted sister, who looked too entertained at the situation in front of them alongside Jody.

Castiel nodded in reply and tilted his head slightly in thought. "However I do wish that you told me you had plans of coming here for an education from an accredited university. My brother, Gabriel, had created one to give me my new position as a university dean, though Dean & I had to make sure he was not going to replicate Hogwarts." He suddenly had that self-pride look on his face. "I now know the reference to that. But I'd like to watch the movies instead of relying from Metatron's quick download of literature into my brain."

* * *

"Welcome to Wonderland!"

Nikita blinked slowly in her slumber to stare up at a stranger in the dark room and scream.

The stranger was a young boy around her age and appeared to look pale. He had a childish innocent smile on his face and proceeded to play the pipe in his hand.

The first thing that Nikita did was to throw salt at the boy.

The boy was thrown off of his playing and coughed, sputtering as he tried to get rid of the salty particles on him. Nikita noticed he wasn't burning. "What the hell, lady?! You trying to blind me?!" He yelled at her.

Nikita scrambled off where she laid, which turned out to be a huge soft leaf folded as a bed, and frowned at the boy. "No... I was trying to kill you." She spoke ever so bluntly.

The young teenage boy's eyes widened in alarm. "That's even worse!" He shouted and scrambled away from her.

She let out a deeper frown. "You're human?"

The boy snorted in reply.

Nikita narrowed her eyes at him. "Then what the hell are you?"

The boy simply winked. "Just call me your imaginary friend!" He called out as he disappeared. Before Nikita could grab the strange boy, a misty cloud covered the dark room and pushed her to fall against the leafy bed.

* * *

Nikita gasped as she startled awake. She glanced around her room and let out a shaky sigh of relief. It was only a dream.

_...but why did it feel so real? Imaginary friend...?_

 


	8. Attempting to Raise A Child: Mark #2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nikita bumps into her new imaginary friend too many times enough for John to notice this strange phenomenon.  
> Sam and Gabriel help Claire adjust to her new life in college with responsibility and partying (the 2nd part being Gabe's fault).  
> Also...  
> Take a glimpse into Castiel and Dean's work lives during the daytime! (And a little show of their parenting skills.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It indeed has been taking me so long to update. To anyone who is reading this or have been following up to this, I apologize for the slow updates. Hope you like this story. :)

"Nikki! It's time to go to school! Your first day, sweetie!" John exclaimed as he pushed the open door. Unfortunately, he had chosen the wrong door and instead stumbled into Dean's room.

His eyes widened in surprise seeing his eldest son cuddling with an angel of the Lord in their sleep. However, he wasn't actually surprised that they would cuddle.

He was more surprised that Castiel was the big spoon to Dean's small spoon.

He quietly chuckled and quickly took a photo, quietly creeping out of the room before Castiel would wake up from his slumber. Lately the angel would take power naps to help recover his grace, but also to spend time alone with Dean in his dreams. Dean was always happy to oblige spending any kind of time with him.

 Meanwhile John finally found the right door to Nikita's room and raised his fist to knock on the door. Before his knuckles could meet the wooden door, he heard her speak to someone but was given no reply. It sounded as if Nikita was having a conversation with thin air.

"...seriously, why can't you tell me your name?.... I'm going to call you Piper Boy then, since you keep playing the damn pipe.... bro, I don't care what kind of instrument that is, you're playing it like a pipe! ....wow, I really didn't think you'd get out the pipe. Look, why are you out of my dreams? Why were you even in my dreams?"

John decided to cut off the supposed conversation by proceeding to knock on the door. "Nikki, I'm coming in! Rise and shine, darling!"

He turned the doorknob while hearing Nikita groan in reply, which matched her next reaction as her father entered the room. He watched her bundle herself up in the bedsheets all alone in the room.

"Oh, no you are not doing that! You're going to school!" John happily tore the sheets away from his daughter's body, causing her to screeched and roll off the bed in protest. "No!!! I will NOT go to school! They'll all make fun of me!" She shouted excuses while laying on the floor.

John snorted and turned his head towards the door with his hand cupped to his mouth, yelling, "SAM! SAMMY BOY, TIME FOR YOUR UNCLE SAM DUTIES! IT'S NIKKI'S FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!"

In three split seconds, the tallest Winchester stalked into the room with a determined gleam in his eyes. He moved towards his foster sister and grabbed her by the waist, hoisting her up like a measly sack of potatoes. He turned around to walk back out of the room. "You will go to school. I will hear no bickering. You have a very bright future ahead of you and no one will hurt you because we'll hurt them if they ever even think about it." Sam stated with a deadly calm voice as he carried Nikita to the shower stalls.

".................................."

The old gruffy man stared at his son's back and wondered how he turned him into a literal 'Uncle Sam' material for education.

* * *

Sam carried the last of Claire's furniture with Gabriel into her new dorm room. They placed the couch onto the soft large pink rug in the living room. With via angel air, they were able to move stuff quickly to Claire's dorm room. Sam looked around the place and smiled sadly as it brought him several memories of when he first moved into Stanford. He internally wished for Claire to have a better experience than he had in the end.

Gabriel overheard Sam's thoughts and grinned.

"Don't worry, Samalam! She won't end up burning on anyone's ceiling or have a loved one end up there! The people who were responsible for that died, remember? Just relax."

Sam threw a bitch face at him as one of the neighbors on the same floor of the dormitory building overheard Gabriel's exclamation and looked at him funny before scoffing and retreating with a box in her arms.

Gabriel ignored all this and continued to try small chatting as he helped put special runes around Claire's personal dorm room. "Besides, as long as you don't stick your dick in anyone's body, especially Claire, then there are chances she won't die."

Claire, who was lining salt by the doorway with a special line casing to make it permanent, whipped her head around and made a disgusted noise in her throat. "Ew! Uncle Gabe, that's gross! Uncle Sam won't do that to me!" Sam, too, strengthened his bitch face at the archangel.

The messenger of the Lord was too busy basking in the glow of what Claire just admitted. "Ahhh~ I'm an uncle! We're official uncles, Sammy-boy!"

Both Sam and Claire rolled their eyes as they continued on with their tasks of the classic way to protect a room in hunter style.

One of the other girls who just moved next to Claire's single dorm room popped her head in. She had pale skin, short and curly hair of a dull blonde color, and large hazel eyes. "Hi! I'm you're neighbor, Doris Lovegood! You must be the new freshman here! I'm a sophomore here and have volunteered to escort you around campus." She spoke with a slight accent. Sam couldn't help but remember that Nikita's dentist, Dr. Granger, had a similar accent, but dismissed the thought.

Unfortunately for him, Gabriel could still read his thoughts and he grinned at Doris. "Heya, Ms. Lovegood! By any chance is your mother's name Luna, and do you know anyone by Hermoine Granger?" He asked to tease her.

Doris blinked at Gabriel and her eyes slowly drifted to his back. "...actually yes. That would be my mother's name and Aunt Hermoine is one of my mother's friends. Nice wings, sir. Are you Claire Novak-Clapton's fathers?" She asked as she stepped into the room. Claire let out a sigh of relief when she passed over the salt line without incident but was still wary of her. The girl was tall and somewhat thin with a narrow build. Doris wore a faded pumpkin colored t-shirt dress with a golden collar and matching colored regular All-Star sneakers.

Gabriel was too busy gaping at the college girl to reply, so Sam stepped in. "We're her uncles. My brother and his brother married," He replied as he shook the offered hand that quickly popped in his direction. "I'm Sam Wesson. It's nice meeting you, Doris."

Doris quickly smiled and nodded. "Very nice to meet you, too, despite you having the lingering small portion of demon blood in your digestive system." Sam looked shocked and pale after those words, but before either uncle could reply, she turned to Claire. "Hey, we sort of have a tradition in this dorm to have the new tenants in this dorm to throw a party, as a welcoming of sorts. Would you be holding one anytime soon?"

Before Claire could deny the invitation or try to weasel her way out of it (she just wanted to make friends and study), Gabriel snapped out of his stupor and hopped on board with the idea. "Yes! Of course! We'll help our niece with the decorations and whatnot! Drinks are on us!" He exclaimed cheerfully, though both Sam and Claire noticed he didn't have the same joyful bounce he had earlier.

Doris, of course, didn't notice and nodded with a smile. "Of course! I'll tell everyone that the party will be here and that it starts at 7pm. See you later!" She chirped as she skipped out of the room.

Everyone in Claire's dorm room stared at the open doorway in silence. Sam decided to speak up.

"Okay... what the fuck was that?"

* * *

"Cas, you ready for work?" Dean called out as he finished tying his boots.

"I'm ready!" Castiel shouted in response and walked out wearing a slightly different look to his trademark trench coat and suit. The angel quickly became accustomed to his new suits of apparel in different colors and styles. He was currently wearing his same trench coat, though his attire was of a long blue suit buttoned jacket over a crisp white shirt in a slim fit and half tied black and white striped tie, matching slacks in similar chroma, and classic black Oxford shoes.

Dean turned to get a good look at him and he blushed, smiling slightly. "Hey, angel, you forgot to tie it properly again."

Castiel grunted as he frowned and tried his best to fix his tie. Dean sighed with a grin and walked over to him to fix it for him. "Here, let me try."

The angel let his friend/husband fix his tie and he took a good look at Dean's work clothes. His face flushed for some reason seeing the dark blue mechanic overalls suit fit perfectly to Dean's body shape. It matched hit trademark choice of boots.

"There ya go!" Dean exclaimed while patting lightly on Castiel's chest. Castiel glanced down at his attire and beamed a smile at Dean with gratitude. They had a moment to stare at each other and not once have either of them felt it was awkward.

"Is Jack going to give you a hard time today, Dean?" Castiel asked as he followed Dean to the kitchen.

The hunter shook his head in reply and quickly made breakfast for him and the angel. "Nah, he's not a pain in my ass. It's actually a compliment to have one of my favorite TV heroes come to life actually work at my shop AND ogle my ass every now and then." He grinned and winked at Castiel, to which the angel chuckled in reply and glanced casually at Dean's backside.

John had been sitting by the stairs for some time now, looking through one of the books from their indoor library on Ancient Egypt. He realized he had to use glasses recently, so here he was reading with his glasses. He had raised an eyebrow seeing Dean and Castiel eye each other and kept his mouth shut. Instead he pulled out another book from the nearest shelf that had no title on its red leather bound cover. He opened it and flipped a few pages before landing on a half full page. He read a pretty long list of names with prices in different handwritings.:

  * **November 19th of 2009: Sam Winchester - ~~$20~~ ~~$40~~ ~~$50~~ $100 ** They're both emotionally stunted. They'll be old or dying before they realize they're in love.
  * **November 19th of 2009: Jo Harvelle - $100** Siding with Sam on this because you should see how they eyefuck each other.
  * **November 19th of 2009: Ellen Harvelle - _Refuses to participate and will be moderator for this bet._  **That's right, I'll be the one to keep count. 
  * **November 20th of 2009: Bobby Singer - $50** on the two idjits that they'll someday pull their heads outta their asses and wed.
  * **November 20th of 2010: Rufus Turner - $60** on the winged angel in the trench coat and Dean Winchester NOT getting together - let's face it. They're blind as hell. It'd be a cold day in Hell when they finally admit their feelings to each other.
  * **November 21st of 2010: Crowley - ~~$1,000~~ $100,000 ** on the two pain in my asses to just go at it and rut like wild animals! Bloody hell, they are blind! I better not lose money on this!
  * **November 22nd of 2010: Gabriel - $100,000 plus a bag of candy!** These two muttonheads have got to get together!
  * **May 19th of 2011: Balthazar - £500,000 plus one deed to a mansion in London, England** I'm treating this odd list as a will (when did you all find the time to write in here?) in case my brother, Castiel, ends up killing me. If they  _DON'T_ get their heads out of their arses, I want one of the surviving angels in this war to donate what I'm offering here to charity. Specifically the ones in Europe because they don't have the Winchesters there, luckily.
  * **May 18th of 2014: Gadreel - $1,000,000** I do not understand but I have found a duffel bag full of this cash and have decided to join this list. I found it when I was inhabiting Samuel Winchester's body. This money may go to Dean Winchester and Castiel if they truly belong to each other. Consider this a gift for matrimony.
  * **April 15th of 2015: Charlie Bradbury - $2,000,000** I'll top the late angel's bet with this much cash (hacking does wonders, people) for Dean and Cas to finally seal the deal! I've just met him today and he is absolutely perfect for Dean!  **Bonus points (2 ticket passes to Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament for LIFE!)** if Dean is the first to admit his feelings for him. (You're welcome, bitches.)
  * **September 10th of 2015: Jody Mills - $40** on them starting a family someday
  * **September 10th of 2015: Alex - ~~$20~~ $40 ** on them banging each other
  * **October 13th of 2015: Max - $500** (Aren't they already married? In that case my boss is a dumbass and he won't realize he's in love until he's either dead or of old age.)
  * **October 13th of 2015: Captain Jack Harkness - $10,000** on them fucking like wild rabbits once they realize they're in love  **+$500** bonus if I end up sleeping with either of them :)
  * **October 13th of 2015: Hugo Weasley - £300** They're already married... I don't understand this bet. Do they not love each other? If they don't realize it yet then I will gladly give up my converted money for the Claptons once they do... wait, why does the list say Dean Winchester? 



John chuckled at the list softly and added his two cents into the list.

  * **November 7th of 2015: John Winchester - Back from the dead. Will act as new moderator now that Ellen is deceased.**



He overheard the small conversation happening from the kitchen and smiled softly as Castiel asked Dean how classes are. Dean had recently enrolled into online classes. He automatically got into MIT with his online test scores and had permission from the school to take classes online because of his ongoing business at work. John felt so proud when Dean first announced his education plans about a month ago during dinner one evening - he abruptly got up from his seat at the dining table and glomped his eldest son into a hug with Sam. Dean was finally applying himself in life without the thought of being only good for hunting.

John closed the book and placed it on the table with his ink pen once Dean called him over for breakfast. He smiled. _I guess he still does take care of his family, even when he doesn't need to worry about his old man sometimes..._

* * *

 The teacher smiled and gestured to the new student standing beside her. "Everyone, please welcome your new classmate in this institution, Nikita Yuson-Clapton!"

The rest of the class reluctantly clapped for the new student. Nikita blushed in light embarrassment and quickly snuck a seat at the back corner of the classroom. There were luckily two rows of empty seats at the back end of the classroom.

She sat down and pulled out her assigned textbooks needed for this lesson, which was English at the moment.

"Hey, sweet thang!"

Nikita's head jerked up and she glanced around the classroom but no one paid attention to her.

Someone suddenly cleared their throat and she whipped her head to the seat next to her. 

A familiar pale boy with the big green almond-shaped eyes smiled at her. She frowned and opened her mouth to speak, but the boy quickly clamped it shut with his cold hand.

"Shhh! People will think you're weird for talking to nobody! You're the only one that sees me." The young boy informed her as he slowly let go of her and stayed at his side of the desk.

Nikita had so many questions for the Piper Boy - the two important ones being A) Who or what are you? and B) How did you get out of my dreams?... The mysterious boy never once answered her question directly.

The Piper Boy simply smiled and answered her as if she asked the questions aloud. "I'm you're Imaginary Friend. Everyone has one, but you're a Nephilim, which makes you special. I can be incorporated out of your dreams once you turn 18 because it's an adult age, though since this rarely occurs I cannot guarantee that I'd land in the right universe. My kind is a mix of a djinn and a Fae." He hopped up on the edge of her desk and crossed his skinny legs. Nikita couldn't help but notice the boy's figure hidden under his slightly baggy yet thin white buttoned shirt and denim blue jeans. She also noticed that the Piper Boy was barefoot.

_Wow, you're very feminine... plus your hair looks soft and wavy... yet messy. Are you a real boy?_

The Piper Boy frowned at Nikita and flicked her forehead gently, causing her to wince slightly. "Stop thinking like that! There's nothing wrong with my natural features."

Nikita nodded slightly and turned back to the teacher, who started to drone on about Mark Twain's  _Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven_. 

"You know, you have to name me in order for me to exist in your universe once you turn 18. So far, I can only travel when you're daydreaming," The Piper Boy nonchalantly spoke up about himself (technically) while sitting back down on the empty seat beside Nikita.

The Nephilim smiled slightly while reading her textbook.  _I think for now I'll just call you Piper Boy._

The imaginary friend frowned and groaned. "I told you I don't actually play on the pipe! It's an illusion to mask my actual weapon!"

* * *

 "Tell me why this was a good idea again?"

"Because it's not every day you get the sudden news that you have two adopted nieces from your baby brother that you can possibly spoil with candy!"

Sam threw an exasperated look at Gabriel's direction. "Do you remember moments ago when you tried that with Nikita? The poor girl had to get a root canal because of you!"

"Hey, it's not my fault she's a Nephilim that can feel physical pain!" Gabriel retorted, though he pouted while waving his hand to fill the refrigerator with various bottles of alcohol.

"That is not healthy. We're encouraging underage drinking here!"

Gabriel snorted. "Since when were you such a prude? Come on! You could even be lookout when the party starts, and I'll watch for any suspicious before, okay?" He gestured to the nearest window with the salt line. "Maybe check out the hot teachers and prude R.A.s around campus? I'll deal with nearby security guards and cops."

Sam raised a stern eyebrow. "Don't you think the fact that we have to be cautious like this means that it's probably a bad idea?"

Claire walked into the kitchen and frowned. "I'm siding with Sam on this one, Gabe - I don't think I'm up for partying. Also, Doris keeps getting calls from her mother overseas about this party being a bad idea. Doris wants to cancel the party - "

"OH HELL NO MISSY!" Gabriel exclaimed and shook his head with his finger."We are definitely having this party to help you get more friends!"

* * *

Dean loves his job so much that he couldn't help but genuinely smile at customers, which resulted in them giving him extra tips, which were more than what he would normally get from any kind of work by flirting with customers in the past.

His staff that he hired were few but of trustworthy quality. One was an angel in a human male vessel, whose name was Zuriel and he appreciated learning about the beauty of cars and how to fix the engines to make them work. Zuriel insisted on Dean using his pay to save up for Nikita's college fund, to which Dean reluctantly agreed (only because the topic of family was brought up - if it hadn't Zuriel would have ended up with monthly pay). Dean found it funny that Zuriel also had a fascination with belts, because he kept wearing a different color or style of belt every single day. (It helped that Dean decided to not have uniforms for his employees.)

[ **The conversation during the interview:**

_"Okay, Zuriel, you seem to like cars and have a fascination with engines..." Dean wrote in his files to help Hannah with her paperwork. She's the one keeping count of how many angels are going out of Heaven and where specifically, so that no one accidentally Falls from Heaven by staying on Earth. He looked up at the angel and grinned. "You can be my first employee."_

_Zuriel nodded with a small smile on his face. He had light brown skin and long, wavy, graying dark brown hair that was tied in a ponytail. His eyes were small and hazel, his body was fairly muscular, and had a broad build. He stood tall from his seat along with Dean and shook his hand. He wore a navy blazer, light blue Oxford shirt, and beige slacks with a brown belt, brown shoes, and a white pocket square. From what he could tell Zuriel dressed practical._ ]

Another was a regular human guy named Jack Harkness, who kept trying to flirt with him at the interview but knew what his boundaries where when he saw the customized wedding ring on Dean's finger. He flirted way less with him, but unfortunately for other workers and customers he flirted with all of them even more. Dean saw how good he was with quantum mechanics and mathematical theory that he decided to go to him during lunch breaks for homework he was given from online classes. He liked Jack the best during those times because Jack would never flirt with him while tutoring him.

Besides, Dean already knew who he was.

[ **The conversation after the interview:**

_"Are you flirting with my husband?" Castiel raised an eyebrow at a brown haired Caucasian man._

_Said man frowned and turned to Dean with a playful pout on his face. "Damn, you guys are married? ...are you opposed to a threesome, though?"_

_Dean blushed deeply and shook his head quickly, smiling at Castiel, who looked torn between confusion and anger. "Cas, this is Captain Jack Harkness! The time traveler Gabe was talking about!" He exclaimed._

_Jack's eyes widened at the sudden turn of events in his interview. "Wait... you know Gabriel? And how do you know who I am??"_

_"He is my brother," Castiel replied and shook Jack's hand. "I apologize for my husband's fanboy behavior. There is a show series in this universe about your life."_

_Jack frowned. "Aw man, not this part of the universe..." He muttered to himself, but quickly perked up for Dean once he saw his employer slump slightly. "But hey! It's great to have a fan! Since you practically know about me and my universe, how about instead of paying me like a regular customer, you give the money to charity and let me help you with anything you need fixing!"_

_Dean definitely perked up at the offer and smiled. "Could you maybe tutor me for my online classes? I've recently decided to join college online."_ ]

He hired another person who he thought was a young human college student, but he wasn't sure after seeing him hold a strange looking stick by his side whenever there was trouble from the customers at the garage shop. (Though there had been minimal disasters since he started work. Dean alone had gotten rid of three motor bicyclists from a gang who were harassing a female customer, but he had help from Zuriel and Jack when a demon tried to enter the grounds. Both Dean and Zuriel were about to explain to Jack about demons afterwards, but the man dismissed the discussion and prompted to flirt with Zuriel. And that was that.)

The college student, Hugo Weasley, was a recent transfer student from Europe and enrolled himself into Castiel's school. Dean figured he may not be entirely human, but that was okay, because the ginger-haired boy was very ambitious and helped around the garage whenever he could. Besides, Hugo had a lot of questions that he wanted to ask to teach his grandfather how electricity and mechanisms work here in America. (Most of them were pretty odd questions as if his grandfather had never seen or touch electricity before, but Jack quickly joined in on the discussion every now and then - or rather whenever he eavesdrops on Hugo's incredulous questions.)

[ **The conversation during the interview:**

_"Weasley? Nice. You like the Harry Potter book series or are you more of a movie guy?" Dean asked the young ginger-haired boy._

_Hugo squeaked in reply with wide, scared eyes. Dean thought it was him and placed Hugo's resume on his desk, which seemed to be made up of non-existent jobs such as broom cleaning or electronic appliance renovation assistant._

_"Hey, hey... it's alright... I won't hurt you or turn you in to the cops or anything - just give me one good reason why you had to write this resume and get this job, that's all."_

_Hugo trembled slightly in his seat but quickly nodded and put on a bravado attitude with his chest jutted out slightly. "I... I have a grandfather who loves electronics like cars and such! Unfortunately, I've learned from my Uncle and Mum that my grandfather could be a bit awkward and he doesn't know exactly what cars do - since I'm starting school here, I want to know so I can teach my grandfather, sir!"_

_Dean noticed the slight accent and shrugged with a soft smile on his face. "Good answer."_ ]

The last person he hired was a woman, which he was definitely okay with, given the circumstances that he witnessed how quickly the young female learned to fix an engine and a flat tire within one hour. Dean figured she wasn't entirely human, either, especially once he saw how fast she worked on her own with 5 customers within two hours. She commented during the interview that Seattle had been a bad place for her, but it didn't really hit Dean of how strange she was until he noticed a bar code on the back of her neck when she tied her hair up. Her name was simply Max, but unfortunately with checks and regulations for the banks, one first name wouldn't suffice. He prodded her one day to reveal her last name until she blew up and tried to hit him, exclaiming that she never had a last name because she was busy being enslaved in a place called Manticore. (She was also angry that Dean looked like someone she knew and was very close with.)

The two fought that day and were in equal footing, though Dean ignored the physical injuries he received. Zuriel and Jack had interfered at the time and made Max calm down enough to obtain enough information to look it up from Jack's weird computer in the garage during lunch break. Dean was a bit disturbed that there were two clones with his DNA with similar barcodes like Max's, and was even more disturbed when one of them (Max briefly explained "He's my brother, Ben..." when she saw the barcode and picture of X5-493 on Jack's computer screen.) died at his employee's hands and had been a delusional case talking about the Blue Lady.

Alex, who turned out to be X5-494, was currently on his way to Kansas to join Max. After further explanation from Max, Hugo stepped up and shakily revealed himself as a wizard. Dean had a feeling he wasn't a normal human being, so he simply nodded at the explanation. With how silent their boss was, both Max and Hugo stared at him with confusion and disbelief until Zuriel mentioned that he was an angel in an empty human vessel (he consented with the previous soul before the soul could move on to Heaven). Dean had mentioned after that that he was a hunter and that he's married to an angel, so hearing all these explanations from each of his employees wasn't exactly a surprise.

Everyone had turned to look at Jack, who wrinkled his nose and explained his status as a time traveler and that he can never die. He could also travel in dimensions and believed in only aliens until he met his friend, Gabriel.

[ **The conversation to start from there:**

_"I already know who you are, Captain Jack." Dean announced loudly and gestured to the transgenic female and young wizard. "It's these two who I needed an explanation from."_

_Everyone awkwardly stared at each other until Dean's father decided to drop by with lunch that he made._

_"Dean! Hey, I made your favorite lunch - apple pie!" He called out to his son while entering the shop and placing the food on the counter. He turned to look at the workers and nodded at Jack. "Hello, Doc." He winked and chuckled, but stopped abruptly when he noticed another familiar face. "Hey, I know you..." John trailed off._

_Max frowned as she stared back at John. "You're one of the humans who was looking for Ben years ago..." She subconsciously cracked her knuckles._

_Dean felt the tension between his father and his employee, so he did the only thing he could do._

_He turned to Hugo and Jack. "Do you guys want to eat pie? This could get ugly."_ ]

\---------------

**_At 11:13pm_ **

Dean was at the Bunker with his father after a long day at work when he got a call from his cellphone. He paused from their conversation about the shy wizard working at his shop to answer the call. "Hello? ...Claire? What's wrong, honey?"

John looked on at Dean with worry etched on his face when he heard a few sobs echoing over the phone. Dean carefully listened and frowned, then his father got to see the pure parental anger on his face. He waited a short moment for the blowup...

"WHAT?! HOW THE HELL - WHERE THE FUCK IS THIS PARTY?! ...HOW THE FUCK DID THAT DAMN ARCHANGEL BRING AN ELEPHANT AROUND THE BLOCK?! ...SAMMY'S WHERE?! ...WHO WAS THE BOY WHO DID WHAT?!"

* * *

Castiel loves his job so much that he adapted to smiling at all his students, who in turn looked at him as if he was a creep.

Although, there had been many single women (either in relation to a student or friends with a student) flirting with him, but he would always show his ring when walking around campus and show off his pictures with Dean framed on his desk if he was in his office with those women. Some would back off immediately and others would still remain flirting with him, to which he'd quickly call lunch break and fly off to visit Dean.

Overall, his experience as dean of a university was wonderful. The campus itself wasn't regularly large, by his request for Gabriel to create the school, but he had a pretty big expanse of green land for students to explore. There were six tall buildings total in similar yet different structure (Castiel had yet again to supervise Gabriel's actions upon creating the school so there would be nothing replicated from the Harry Potter books.)

Because Gabriel quickly gets bored and annoying, Castiel decided to make him the school president, which excited the archangel. (In the end Castiel reluctantly let Gabriel decorate one building in a slight Hogwarts style. _One only_.)

Now, Castiel wasn't an idiot - as an angel he was very conscious of various worlds and universes possibly colliding, thus added the six colleges for six departments: a yellow-orange building with a post modern architectural structure for the College of Genetic Research & Military Training, where transgenics and anomalies from Manticore can feel useful with their abilities and take serious heavy-level therapy (3 floors - no basement); a blue-purple building with a medieval architectural structure for the College of Witchcraft & Wizardry, where wizards of all genders can be all called wizards and not be stereotyped as they learn advanced magic and form the first American Ministry of Magic (outside it appeared to have 5 floors but inside it has 14 floors - has basement floor where there's a wall and fireplace to get to a new wizard alley in America called Trickster Lane, courtesy of Gabriel); a blue-green building with a Victorian architectural structure for the College of Quantum Mechanics & Theory of Space Evolution, where people associated with the Doctor or Torchwood can study all of time travel and alternative dimensions in numerous universes (3 floors - has wide basement for scientific experiments); a yellow building with a Renaissance architectural structure for the College of Mythological & Religious Studies, where angels and fallen angels who wish to stay on Earth and remain close to the Heavenly Host can stay and study the wonders of humanity (6 floors - no basement, but the top 6th floor is the school dean's office); a dark red brick building with a wide stretch prairie style architecture for the Men of Letters College, where people associated with hunters can help research or understand the supernatural natures of the world and learn how to aide other victims in the future of supernatural causes (2 floors - basement floor is very wide and travels to the outdoors as a parking structure); and lastly, a cream colored building with some ivory stems grown around it that appears in a gothic cathedral style of architecture was made as the Graduate School of Lost Ancient Mythology, where soon-to-be hunters go for training after figuring out whether they are suited for the hunting life.

The Men of Letters College was where the main office was for public eye view. This was decided the place where many regular human students can study and travel through classes. Castiel and Gabriel arranged the place together to be very close-knit so that there would be very few chances of students growing into enemies. Every building was arranged in a circle with the Cathedral building in the center. The infirmary was located in the Wizard building, the weight room and gym in the Transgenic building, the cafeteria and library in the Men of Letters College, and the offices of every professor on campus located in the 5th floor of the Religious Studies building.

Castiel was not only the school dean for the Mythology & Religious Department, but he also started teaching human classes on the subjects of Bible Studies With Recent Evidence  and Evidence Supporting Fable Myths.

\-----------------------------

**_At 10:45pm_ **

Castiel was staying past his usual office hours to grade his first assignment papers from his students when he got the call from Claire. He checked the caller ID and smiled softly, putting down his pen and papers to answer the call. "Hello, Claire. How are you? ....what? Claire, calm down..... what happened?"

He listened to the call carefully, his eyes slowly narrowing down as anger shimmered to the surface. When he spoke, it was of a dead calm that surpassed Sam's dangerous tone of voice when speaking to others during anger. Coincidentally, the night sky suddenly shimmered into a blurry storm and behind Castiel rose a shadowy pair of huge battered wings.

"Gabriel did what? ...which boy was this, again? ...I see... your uncle even got Sam in jail? With a professor? ...alright, but explain to me again how Gabriel managed to secure a rocket launcher on the roof of a fraternity building without security around..."

* * *

"Have classes always been this easy in Kansas?" Nikita blurted out while reading her worksheet in the afternoon during classtime, causing the rest of her classmates in her Algebra class to glare at her.

Her Algebra teacher narrowed her eyes at her and scoffed. "Well, Miss Clapton, if you would like to solve this equation on the board - which is the hardest, mind you - then feel free to do so." She lazily gestured to the chalkboard beside her.

Nikita's cheeks flushed in embarrassment, but encouragement from the imaginary "Piper Boy" sitting beside her gave her some confidence to stand up and walk to the board. Just when someone stuck out his foot at the last second to make Nikita trip, the Piper Boy frowned and quickly grabbed Nikita's arm, slightly jerking her away from tripping on anything on the ground. She glanced at the foot and blushed more, letting the Piper Boy lead her to the chalkboard without tripping.

She quickly scampered up to the board, scribbled a few numbers with chalk, then quickly sped back to her seat.

Everyone, including the teacher and excluding the Piper Boy, stared at the answer scribbled on the board and how Nikita showed her work. No one in the classroom noticed the principal silently checking each classroom with a clipboard in hand, especially when he stopped by their classroom upon noticing the silence. He glanced at the board and looked impressed.

The teacher frowned at the board and whipped her head around to glare at the girl. "Your answer is wrong!" She shouted. "Detention for causing disruption to my classroom - "

The principal quickly interrupted as he strolled into the room. "Mrs. Halpern! How dare you shout at a student! Go to my office - **now**." He commanded.

The teacher sputtered before stalking off the classroom. The principal muttered "I never liked her..." before smiling at the student Mrs. Halpern was glaring at. "Your answer was correct, by the way. I apologize on her behalf. Class is dismissed everyone!"

Everyone in class quickly packed up and scrambled of the classroom.

* * *

After Claire called Castiel and Dean and told them where her dorm room was exactly, she remained in the back end of her closet room, quietly sniffling while rubbing the tears from her eyes.

She tried to pray to Gabriel, but she forgot that she warded her dorm room entirely so that all types of angels wouldn't be able to locate her or enter her dreams. Dean's father, John, warned her earlier about Nikita's imaginary friend and sleep patterns. He analyzed them and one of the causes he came up with was that it could be an angel trying to enter her dreams.

She quietly shook and folded herself in the corner with her arms wrapped around her knees. She controlled her breathing when she heard the young man around her age she just met today call out for her.

"Hey, Blondie! Where'd you go? We were just having fun!"

She shut her eyes tight and made sure not to make a sound. She thought the "young handsome man" from one of her general education classes hadn't been drinking when she was talking to him in one of her neighbor's bedrooms.

There was a rustle noise of the bedroom door opening and then he groaned, obviously not seeing Claire in her bedroom. "Come on! Don't be such a prude! You know you want it!"

She shook her head and breathed evenly to level the noise of her breaths. She thought she could take him on if he ever tried to pressure her, but she got punched in the face for her troubles, so she punched him back and ran back to her bedroom.

All of a sudden she saw the closet door open. Her eyes widened at the drunken man around her age find her with lust in his eyes. "NO!" She screeched as she backed further into a wall. She screamed for her uncles, but she knew from an earlier phone call that Sam got arrested for indecency to the public (he took a liking to a professor on campus and she really liked him) and Gabriel was attentive to the party at hand, despite the latter being an archangel (the being wasn't exactly all-knowing like his Father).

The drunken man grinned and he started to grab her by the ankles, pulling her roughly out of the closet. Claire screamed for help and tried to kick at the perpetrator, causing the man to grunt and quickly kick her in the stomach hard. She winced and yelped while clutching her stomach. He lunged to grab at her until someone stalked into the bedroom and grabbed at the drunken man.

Claire watched with a slightly bruised face as the stranger (another handsome young man around her age who wears glasses... though he looked strangely familiar) pounded his fist into the drunk guy's face and tossed him out of the bedroom, slamming it shut after a few of what looked like the stranger's buddies caught the drunk guy in their arms. "And stay out! A person says no, then it's no!" He yelled at the door.

After a long silent moment, the stranger turned to look at Claire with sincere concern. "Are you alright? My name is Ben Braiden-Winchester."

Claire's eyes widen, then they slowly narrowed in suspicion. This was all too coincidental. "Are you by any chance related to Dean Winchester?"

Ben froze at the name. "How... how do you know him?"

"He's technically my father in all but blood... name's Claire, by the way." She quickly introduced herself and furrowed her eyebrows at him. "He never mentioned having a son."

"...that's because he doesn't know. My mom lied to him and me years ago... and now that she and I remember who he is - "

Claire frowned deeply at that, but Ben caught on to her look and shook his head while quickly explaining. " - I'll explain later... maybe once you and Dean are in the same place... anyways, long story short - my mom decided to continue forgetting him while I wanted to look for him, especially after finding the Supernatural books. I understand why he had this Castiel guy wipe my memories - " Claire's breath hitched at that moment, " - but my mom kept blaming every failed relationship on Dean after we remembered. She and I had a falling out after that - I mean, she always dated a lot of guys, which was how I was born - and now I'm here, looking for my biological dad while looking for my own path in life. I've only known recently that Dean was my actual father during the time I graduated high school and left home. I checked paternal tests with whatever DNA I had from the clothes he left at my mom's house."

Claire slowly blinked at Ben after the short explanation (though it felt like a lengthy one) and nodded slowly, wincing at her face.

"Oh shit, let me heal that for you..." Ben panicked and ran to where Claire had her personal bathroom (the perks of having her own dorm room). He came back out with a cold wet towel and offered it to her.

She accepted the towel and placed it gently on the bruised part of her face. "Thanks."

"No problem."

* * *

**_"GABRIEL!"_ **

Said archangel gulped and turned around, letting go of the funnel pretty quickly.

There standing in the main desk lobby of the dorm building was Castiel and Dean Winchester.

Correction: There standing in the main desk lobby of the dorm building was an _angry_ Castiel and Dean Winchester, dressed in regular working outfits but nonetheless still the scary beings that they were.

"Oh shit."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. The Piper Boy is Nikita's imaginary friend.  
> 2\. Does Claire seem a bit more mature than you'd imagine? I wanted to capture her learning the hard life and adapting an evaluated look into her memories to gain a mature perspective for college.  
> 3\. Sometimes I wonder if I should make a Gabriel/Sam tag thing going, but I don't think I should for this story.  
> 4\. Destiel moments~ At this point if anyone wants to make a request to add more to the plot you can comment here! :)  
> 5\. ....did you guys notice from last chapter? I snuck in a little bit of everything.... damn, which means I have to add new tags. Let me know if I left out anything in the tags.


	9. Settling Down During Chaos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castiel & Dean do party control Winchester style. Meaning Gabriel & Sam are grounded.  
> Also: Dean & Ben meet again!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, Imaginary Friends episode!
> 
> I honestly didn't know they were going that route and it's helping my fic idea for this! I almost went into a writer's block there. Thank you, SPN writers!
> 
> P.S.: Sorry, it'll be a bit short because I'm pressing on time today and I don't want to leave this hanging before the New Year. Happy Holidays!

"EVERYBODY OUT OF THE DAMN DORM! NOW!"

Everyone in the college party froze and turned to see a fuming Dean Winchester next to an equally angry Castiel, and behind the couple were a team of slightly wary yet still scary policemen.

With that image in mind, everyone except for Gabriel scrammed out through the door with the policemen following behind to chase the college students.

Gabriel gulped and sheepishly grinned, though it slipped quickly as Dean and Castiel continued to glare at him. "Alright! Alright! So I threw a big bad party! What's the big deal?!" He cried out in exasperation.

Castiel narrowed his eyes at him. "For starters, this place is warded from angels, especially in Claire's room."

The archangel rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I know that! I helped her with the warding myself!"

"So you know she's been calling for help with no one replying to her when there was a drunk young man who beat her and tried to have his way with her?" Dean asked in a deadpanned tone. Gabriel's eyes widened at that with rage.

"THE BOY DID WHAT?! WHERE IS HE?! I'M GOING TO KILL HIM - "

"No need." Castiel growled quietly at his brother. "Claire called back and said that someone saved her and that they're staying in the bedroom until we've arrived."

Gabriel let out a sigh of relief but quickly sucked his breath. "...I'm dead meat, aren't I?"

Both Castiel and Dean nodded. The latter male counted by his fingers. "One - you weren't watching out for Claire."

"Two," Castiel stated with a dead calm to his deep voice. "- you threw a party that grew alarmingly fast in size population that it reached its maximum and the neighbors had to call in complaints."

"Three," Dean spoke, "- you managed to bewitch a professor's inner slut to have her way with Sammy in public, causing both adults to get arrested for public indecency."

"Four," Castiel raised an eyebrow at Gabriel. "I don't know how you put a rocket launcher on the roof of this building without people noticing, but it was there and people noticed."

"Five," Dean smacked Gabriel at the back of his head once he reached to all 5 fingers sticking out from counting. " - how the fuck did you get an elephant from India to create a parade around the block?!" Gabriel was about to answer, but Dean quickly interrupted him. "Don't even try explaining - I don't actually want to know, just fix this fucking mess and make the cops think we already paid for damages after YOU clean all this crap up!"

Gabriel sulked and nodded, trailing after the college students and the cops outside, where every now and then you could hear the elephant blowing its trunk.

"Claire?" Castiel called out softly. "Come on out, it's me and Dean."

The young woman in question hesitantly walked out of her bedroom with a familiar tall figure holding her hand. Dean's eyes widened. 

"Ben?"

"....hey, dad." The young man sheepishly grinned and waved shyly at the married couple.

Dean looked extremely shocked at the boy before the stress overtook him and his vision turned black.

* * *

 

"Seriously, what are you?" Nikita asked again while she glared at the young boy cooking for her. "You can touch things, but people can't see you. I'm passing it off as my imaginary friend of sorts, but you don't seem less human often.

The Piper Boy snorted and turned around to glare at the girl. "I'll have you know that there is a word for my kind, and we're sort of like imaginary friends, and I'm nameless because no one has a name for me yet."

The nephilim raised an eyebrow at the Piper Boy in her kitchen at the Bunker. "Why can't you name yourself?"

"Because my charge has to either name me or wish the perfect wish for me to do so. So far, I haven't met a kid that could do that." The Piper Boy spoke softly in a moment of sadness that Nikita couldn't help but sit uncomfortably. Before she could speak up more, her surrogate father rushed into the kitchen.

"Dean's passed out and he has a biological son. I'm an official grandfather!" He yelled out with joy and grabbed his daughter to spin her around, causing her to laugh out of shock and at the same time worry for her brother.

"Why did he pass out?"

* * *

 

When Dean came to again, the first people he saw were Castiel, Claire, his dad, Nikita, his brother, and Ben. His son.

Oh God, he had a son and he didn't even knew it was him!

The hunter-turned-mechanic sat up straight and pulled Ben into a hug. "What... how.... I didn't even know - "

Ben shook his head and hugged Dean tightly as well. "I didn't know either, but I found out after I graduated from high school. Mom and I suddenly remembered who you were but I was still okay with it. She, on the other hand, didn't want to be anywhere near you." He pulled away slightly to look at his dad and how well he aged from the last time he saw him. "She and I had a falling out and.... I wanted to find you so bad, so I came to where it all started for you..."

Dean suddenly sobbed and was overcome with emotions. The only thing he could do was hug Ben tightly against him.

The rest of the family smiled at each other.

* * *

While the Piper Boy wandered around the Bunker playing with his flute (she finally figured out what the instrument was), Nikita quickly combed the category file cabinets for a library card. She grew frustrated and sighed when she couldn't find anything and slammed the cabinet shelf shut.

"What're you looking for?"

The nephilim glanced up at one of her older brothers, Sam. She smiled softly yet tiredly. "Hey, Sam. I was looking up stuff about Imaginary Friends."

Sam raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "Why would you look for Zanna?"

Nikita's eyes widened. "There's a name specifically for them?"

Still with suspicion, Sam nodded and hesitantly moved to where he remembered pulling the book off the shelf to check once. He flipped the pages over for the specific page and gave the book to his sister to see. "Mine named Sully visited me with help for a case. They're naturally nice to people, especially children, and are like djinn fairies who act like spirit guides for the children to their destined path happily." He folded his arms across his chest and leaned against one of the bookshelves. "Again I ask, why are you looking for information about Zanna? Did... did one look for you?"

Nikita shyly bit her lip and nodded at Sam, then glanced back down at the book. "He said he doesn't have a name though, and that either I should give him a proper name or I have to make some kind of wish that allows for him to do so. The perfect wish." She pouted. "I don't know how to do that."

Sam smiled softly and patted her on the back. "Well, you have all the time in the world to think about it. Also... could you pass on a message that I said hi to Sully?"

* * *

 

"So... gay angel, huh?"

"What?" Dean looked up in surprise at his son. He was busy staring at the schedule that the bulletin had for College of Genetic Research & Military Training. It was decided that Ben and Claire transfer quickly to Gabriel's new university where Castiel worked called _Great Oak Conservatory: University For the Gifted_.

Ben raised an eyebrow at him. "Castiel. Angel. You two are married now. Are you gay?" He spoke bluntly.

"Whoa whoa whoa! I'm not - I - uh..." Dean hastily put his hands up in the air. "I have to marry someone to claim my surrogate sister, okay? So your grandpa chose Cas. Plus, he and I click."

Ben raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "You know... I don't mind if you dated him. He seems good for you."

"He does?" Dean asked flabbergasted.

"Yeah, and with the whole family living together now, thanks to Gabriel and Uncle Sam, I think you should have this break. He's worth the risk."

Dean smiled softly and patted his son on the shoulder. "Thanks, Ben... I'm glad you're with us now."

"Me, too, dad. Me, too." Ben chuckled as he glanced at a grumpy Sam and whining Gabriel from a distance who both had to guide a group of 200 students themselves as part of the new student recruitment orientation at the school.

 


	10. A Few Months After Into the New Year

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone is settling in after 2016 began and Project Destiel has not happened yet.  
> All bets are on officially and people are split into two teams to collect their rewards.  
> Even the Zanna are included.  
> Yes, you heard me. Imaginary Friends.

Gabriel slapped a piece of paper on the table in the Library section of the Bunker. "Alright, it's now 2016 and I've had it with Bert and Ernie!" He growled out with a pissed expression on his face.

Everyone sitting at the table, minus Dean and Castiel since they had work, jumped in their seats over the random archangel popping into the room. They all glanced at him before shifting their gazes towards the paper on the table.

John hesitantly grabbed the sheet of paper and unfolded it. His eyes widened and he nearly shed tears. "This is Mary's handwriting..." he mentioned with a soft tone in his voice.

Sam looked across the table at his father with a sad smile on his face. "Did she say how is she? When Dean and I went to Heaven, Ash couldn't find mom."

John raised an eyebrow at his son. "When did you die - "

"Okay, sorry to interrupt, Papa Winchester, but we have a crisis on our hands!" Gabriel interrupted while he flung his hands in the air. "Read the list!"

The eldest hunter grumbled and put on his reading glasses before checking the piece of paper. His face scrunched up and he slowly turned to the archangel. "Why the fuck did you have my wife tag along in this bet over my son and his angel?"

Everyone's eyes bulged out and their jaws dropped. "What?!" Sam cried out.

John snorted and pulled out a worn out journal from one of the bookshelves behind him. "You started the bet with Bobby and the Harvelles, Sam, and now everyone took a turn in it." He opened the journal and shoved it towards Sam's direction on the table so he could take it. "I'm only gonna act as mediator. Apparently your mom wrote that people from Heaven want a piece of that bet still."

Sam blushed as everyone else laughed and gathered around closer to see the list and Mary's note.

"Exactly!" Gabriel announced as he grinned at everyone. "We are now going to start Project Destiel! I want everyone to split into two teams and I will be leader for the two muttonheads to finally get together!"

Sam frowned at him. "Dude, that's cheating! They have to realize it naturally!"

Gabriel gave the tall Winchester a sneer and playfully pouted as he crossed his arms. "You'll truly win that bet if after all our advances are done and they _still_ won't be able to get the picture."

Sam contemplated on this and slowly nodded with a determined look in his eye. "You're on."

John slapped his hand to his face.  _Oh Jesus, it's starting._

* * *

**ATTEMPT #1**

**MEMBERS FROM TEAM PROFOUND BOND PLAYING: GABRIEL, CROWLEY, AND JODY**

**VS.**

**MEMBERS FROM TEAM REALITY CHECK WATCHING: SAM, MAX, AND CLAIRE**

**REFEREE/ALMIGHTY PLACEHOLDER FOR BETS: JOHN**

**TEAM CAPTAINS FROM EACH TEAM: GABRIEL VS. SAM**

John went to visit Dean's work with Sam, Gabriel, Crowley, and Jody. Sam and Jody were able to fit in the black pickup truck seats, so Crowley and Gabriel lazily tagged along in the open rear.

Dean glanced up from his conversation with a customer as the truck parked at the garage shop. He smiled softly and excused himself with the customer, who happened to be a flirty female. John noticed that not once did Dean check her chest.

"Dad! Sammy! Jody!" Dean called out to the people coming out of the truck. Gabriel and Crowley frowned and stuck their heads out from the rear of the truck. "What are we, chopped liver?!" They asked at the same time in the same indignant tone.

Dean chuckled and rolled his eyes as he hugged his family (+ Jody included) first before helping both odd beings down from the truck. Right as he guided all of them to the shop building, a 1978 tan colored Lincoln Continental Mark V rolled into the shop grounds beside John's black colored 2008 Dodge Ram. Crowley and Sam groaned at the sight. "Jesus, not that pimp ride again!" The King of Hell complained and stalked into the shop. Max, walking towards the group, easily dodged the demon and stood beside Sam.

"I heard about your bet and I'm still in..."  Max whispered quickly to Sam as Claire ran over to them after climbing out of Castiel's car as quickly as she could. 

"Is this about the bet about Castiel and Dean? I'm on your side, guys." She mumbled softly and shook her head as she watched Dean approach Castiel with a platonic hug. "They're going to be very, very old on the day when they'll admit their feelings to each other."

Gabriel noticed the female customer with the big rack and smirked. "Well hello, dear! Did Deano over there helped you with your car? I swear he's the best!" He boasted.

The female customer giggled. "Oh, he did! I just wanted to return the favor because the deal I got to pay for the damages doesn't do justice compared to the excellent service I got..." She winked at Dean when their eyes met, and Dean merely smiled and waved. 

Jody raised an eyebrow at the lady. "Uh... he's married to the guy next to him." She blatantly pointed out and pointed at the matching rings that are, in a way, uniquely distinct from each other.

The lady frowned and shrugged. "He looks more like a manly man to me. Doesn't matter - I can make him straight again!" Claire silently sneered in disgust at the woman.

Wanting to keep his bets in place, Crowley decided that the lady should leave. It wasn't looking too good through the window vision in the garage shop. He snuck back towards the group and approached the woman. "Excuse me, Miss...?"

"Ah, my name is Cecelia Camden! My daddy owns my stupid 2015 Chevrolet Mustang over there - " she gestured to the hot pink vehicle nearby as she continued talking, " - and he owns 3 mansions in Arizona. He likes buying me stuff." Cecelia noticed Dean coming towards her and she quickly pushed her boobs up so it looks like they're coming out of her skinny tank top. She looked up and smiled, only for it to falter when she saw Dean walking beside his supposed husband.

"Hey, Miss Camden. I hope your car is satisfactory." Castiel smiled brightly and lightly touched Dean's shoulder. "My husband is a hardworking man and I am proud of him." He declared promptly. Dean lightly blushed and chuckled, shrugging as he scratched his head slightly. "Ah, it's nothing, Cas. Just using my skills to help provide for our children now."

Cecelia gaped at them and awkwardly nodded, quickly stuttering an excuse to leave and left to her car. Dean watched in confusion as she sped out of the shop grounds.

"Was it something I said?" Dean cluelessly asked.

Castiel shrugged. "She was probably cold due to the wind. It is the winter time still and her nipples had hardened underneath her tank top."

Dean raised an eyebrow at him as everyone else facepalmed.

**TEAM PROFOUND BOND: 0**

**TEAM REALITY CHECK: 1**

* * *

**ATTEMPT #2**

**MEMBERS FROM TEAM PROFOUND BOND PLAYING: GABRIEL, ALEX, AND JACK**

**VS.**

**MEMBERS FROM TEAM REALITY CHECK WATCHING: SAM, SULLY, AND WEEMS**

Castiel was baking in the kitchen. Lately with some guidance from Dean, he found comfort in baking. Dean was a great master at cooking, and together they conquered the kitchen together.

Now, the angel was baking some goods for Claire, Ben, and Nikita when they get out from school and come back to the Bunker. He preheated the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit while lining baking sheets with parchment paper for amaretti cookies*, which were one of Claire's favorite as a kid. He already took out the banana nut muffins** for Ben from the oven to check on them with a toothpick. When he was satisfied, he placed them on a rack beside Nikita's finished blueberry buckle***.

Sam walked into the kitchen with Sully and Weems trailing after him. The tall man called them over for some help, and they agreed to help him win the bet.

Castiel sighed without looking up from the food processor. "Sam, how may I help you?"

Sam sputtered silently and quickly regained confidence to prove he was right. From the kitchen doorway, Gabriel, Alex, and Jack peeked their heads out slowly to watch the scene before them. 

 "Hey, Cas... have you ever thought about making pie for Dean? I bet he'd appreciate it after a long day of work." He suggested to the angel.

"Or he could just magic it up, like we do!" Sully chimed in as he appeared with Weems. Only Alex and Jack jumped up at the sudden apparition. Everyone else remained unfazed.

Castiel turned to the new people in the room with a calm look on his face. "Ah, I believe you two are Zanna, correct?"

Weems grunted in agreement and smiled along with Sully. "Yep, we're the best of pals! And Sully here used to be Sam's spirit guide as a kid!"

The angel's eyebrows were raised as he turned to a sheepish Sam.

"Why are the Zanna here, Sam?"

Sam fitched under Castiel's stare.  _Damn, could he make an impressive stare. No wonder he and Dean get into their weird staring contests..._ "They're helping me with some research for the Men of Letters. So anyways, like they said, you don't really have to make all these things. You can zap them into existence like Gabriel does."

Castiel quickly glanced at Gabriel by the doorway with a nonchalant reply. "Then my body wouldn't work out. It would be quite pudgy like Gabriel's." He ignored the indignant sound of "Hey!" coming from Gabriel.

 "Cas, I'm sure Dean doesn't care whether or not you make the pie, so long as there  _is_ pie for him," Sam stated.

The angel frowned and glanced at the baked goods he made by scratch so far. "But I love the humane satisfaction of paid off results when working extremely hard." He pouted subconsciously, and that was when Dean walked into the kitchen.

Dean glanced at the sad angel then at everyone else in and around the kitchen. "Alright, everybody out!" He ordered with a frown on his face. "You don't deserve dessert if you made my angel cry."

Sam gaped at his brother as Alex and Jack high fived each other. Gabriel was too busy feeling sad at potentially having no dessert.

Although he is an archangel, knowing the Winchesters, he might be powerless if he ends up misbehaving. He learned early on never to underestimate the Winchesters.

**TEAM PROFOUND BOND: 1**

**TEAM REALITY CHECK: 1**

* * *

 

"Dean?"

"Yes, Cas?"

"...when are we going to tell them that we kissed on New Years, confessed each other's feelings on your birthday, and got officially engaged on Valentine's Day?"

Dean chuckled and leaned back against the headboard of his bed inside his room at the Bunker. Castiel laid beside him and made sure the door was closed, but not locked. "I told you, once they realize and peek into our room to find us snuggling is when we'll make the announcements."

"But Dean, the door has been left open for 2 1/2 months now, and not one person bothered to check up on us, well, except your father."

The retired hunter smiled at his fiancee and lightly leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. "Then it's their problem, not ours."

Castiel smiled at the warm press against his cheek. He kissed him back, but on the lips, in playful retaliation. "By the way, Hannah is helping John with collecting the bets in Heaven first before dealing with people on Earth."

Dean laughed carelessly and pulled the angel close against his body. Yeah, life was now good for the hunter so far.

_**CRASH!** _

The couple could hear Sam's curses from the inside of their room. After a while Gabriel's familiar voice piped in with a loud and obnoxious tone.

"YOU BROKE IT! FIX IT WITH YOUR ANGEL MOJO OR SOMETHING!"

"ARE YOU FOR REAL?! IT'S JUST A VASE!"

Another crash jolted the couple to sit up straight.

"DAMMIT, SAMALAM! DON'T JUST START GETTING THOR ON ME - hey wait, how the hell do you have my brother's hammer?!"

"FOR THE LAST TIME, YOU'RE NOT LOKI!"

".....where's Dad? DAAAAAAD! DEAN! CAS! THEY'RE WRESTLING IN THE LIBRARY!" Dean would have left the fight alone if his foster sister wasn't around, but now that it seems as if she's at the crossfire of these troublemakers...

Both men groaned as they slowly climbed out of the bed. Yeah, life was still good so far.

So long as there isn't a Sasquatch and a midget wrestling a pagan god's hammer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Amaretti cookies recipe: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/amaretti_cookies/  
> **Banana nut muffins recipe: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/banana_nut_muffins/  
> ***Blueberry buckle recipe: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/blueberry_buckle/


End file.
